Ordtecken

Ordtecken is a term used in Swedish to refer to punctuation marks—the symbols that accompany written text to separate elements, indicate tone and rhythm, and clarify meaning. While the word is Swedish, punctuation marks function similarly across many languages, with local rules guiding their use.

The main categories of ordtecken include sentence-ending marks such as the period, question mark, and exclamation mark, which signal the end of a sentence and help convey tone. Internal punctuation includes the comma, semicolon, and colon, which organize clauses and lists. Quotation marks mark speech or quotations, while parentheses and brackets set off supplementary information or clarifications. The dash and the hyphen serve different purposes: the hyphen connects word parts in compounds, and the dash (often the en dash or em dash in typography) can indicate range or an abrupt break in thought. Ellipses indicate omitted material or a trailing pause. Apostrophes appear in contractions or possessives in some languages, though their use varies by language and style.

Punctuation guides specify how ordtecken should be applied to enhance clarity, readability, and tone. Proper punctuation helps prevent misreading by signaling structure, emphasis, and boundaries between ideas. Styles differ between languages and publishers, and modern usage may vary with genre, medium, and audience. Some languages emphasize certain marks or employ quotation conventions that differ from others, reflecting linguistic and typographic traditions.

In digital text, ordtecken are encoded as characters in Unicode and rendered through fonts, with typographic choices such as straight versus curly quotes and spacing around marks affecting appearance. The transition from typewriter-era conventions to contemporary typography has also influenced how punctuation is treated in different contexts, including accessibility considerations for screen readers and automated text processing.