Re: [Lingo] spaces in japanese writing

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 30/06/07, burlingk@example.com <burlingk@example.com> wrote:

> I have observed spaces used after any comma use, and occaisonaly where
> there was no comma,

I doubt it. Compare:

「この使いかた、普通じゃない？」
「でも、 これはちょっと可笑しいと思うよ」

The Japanese 「、」 character (Unicode U+3001 IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA[1]) has
spacing built into the glyph in every Japanese font I've ever seen.
Adding a literal space (Unicode U+0020 SPACE[2]) is not done in my
experience.

> but it would have made sense to have a comma in an English or German
> scentence.

The comma usage rule in Japanese is wonderful:

"Stick a comma anywhere you would pause if you were reading the sentence."

「まあ、今日はいい天気、と思わない？」
「1864年に、明治一新と言うことで、徳川幕府がなくなって、日本は現代的な時代に入った、と史学者がよく言う。」

> I have seen at times scentences broken up by clause as well.
> Kind of like "theboyran towardstheschool becausehewaslate."

With spaces? Maybe in textbooks, but never in authentic texts.

> Don't assume I know what I am talking about. ^_^

了解で御座る。

Cheers,
Josh

[1] http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/3001/index.htm
[2] http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/0020/index.htm