puntkommas

Puntkomma is the Dutch term for the punctuation mark semicolon (;). The semicolon serves as a versatile separator: it can link closely related independent clauses and can also separate items in a complex list where the items themselves contain commas. The name puntkomma literally means 'dot-comma' in Dutch.

In natural language, puntkomma is used to join two independent clauses that are closely related, without using a conjunction such as and or but. It is also used to separate items in a sentence's list when the items contain internal commas, to avoid ambiguity.

Typography guides treat the semicolon as a pause stronger than a comma but weaker than a period. Spacing rules vary by language and style; in practice, the semicolon is followed by a space before the next word.

Historically, the semicolon emerged in late 15th century European typography, attributed to Italian printers such as Aldus Manutius, as a distinct punctuation mark to indicate an intermediate pause. The term semicolon is Latin for 'half-colon', while in Dutch the mark is called puntkomma, literally 'dot-comma'.

In computing, the semicolon is used as a statement terminator in many programming languages, including C, C++, Java, and JavaScript. In other languages, such as Python, it is optional or used only to separate simple statements on one line. It can also terminate commands in query languages like SQL.

See also: Semicolon.