Not median - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

The not median (or not in top ) is a typographical sign similar to the but not placed above the base line. The former uses go back to the epigraphy: it was useful, in many ancient writings, to separate the words (when they were it). Its use in Latin and Greek (for example), although attends, was however never systematic and one generally confined this separating point of words to the inscriptions in capital. Here an example:

ΝΙΨΟΝ·ΑΝΟΗΜΑΤΑ·ΜΗ·ΜΟΝΑΝ·ΟΨΙΝ

(in Greek: “lava my sins and not only my eyes”, Palindrome which one can meet on baptismal font).

He was détrôné by the space (the separating median point not having been preserved in the Western and means-Eastern printed manuscript writings then), now obligatory in all the languages with writing derived from the phenician, i.e. as much the Greek alphabet and his descent (Latin alphabet, Cyrillique, etc) that the Semitic Abjad S (Arabic alphabet, Hebrew, etc), and this in all the types of writings.

The median point is used also as diacritic in the current orthography of the Catalan. It is named literally (as a Catalan), punt volat , “not high” (: flown away ). In other languages, it is used as sign of Ponctuation or typographical sign .

In space analysis, the median point is such as if I and J is two points unspecified of sowing and Dij the Euclidean distance which separate them, the median point or centers median is such as the sum of the distances to all the other points of studied sowing is minimum.

Use as a Catalan

Distinction L ~ ŀl

The median point is placed exclusively between two L or two L in capitals, to obtain the Digramme modified ŀl or ĿL in capitals ( L·L or L·L without précomposition). One can thus oppose two digraphs (the transcriptions between hooks follow the uses of the International Phonetic Alphabet):

L is generally worth (/l/ palatalized or “wet” as in Former French in family, in Italian in famiglia or in Occitan in familha ), as in Castillan; L (known as ela dobla 'dɔbːlə) meets on any site in the mot. For example: delivers “(one) delivers”, illa “island” or ell “it”. This digraph is not regarded any more as an independent letter in the Alphabetical classification;
ŀl is worth (/l/ geminated or length, often reduced to in the current language). One can meet this digraph (known as ela geminada ʒəmi' nað̞ə) neither in beginning nor at the end of the word: eŀlíptic “elliptic”. It does not form either an independent letter and one classifies it in the alphabet after the digraph L . Such /l/ geminated meet especially in erudite words (built starting from a prefix finished by a - L followed by a radical starting with L , for example: coŀlegi ) or in the loans ( paraŀlel ).

Print

The Catalan median point must be replaced by a hyphen in the event of caesura. Síŀlaba will become síl-laba .

It must also trace in capital: SÍĿLABA .

In bad compositions, the median point is sometimes replaced by a not low even a hyphen: *síl.laba , *síl-laba . It is a use to be avoided.

Not median nondiacritic

It is used in other languages, but not like diacritic. It is then a Ponctuation which one meets in Greek (handwritten then printed) or in Géorgien. In Greek, it is equivalent to our Deux-points and the Point-virgule. In géorgien, it is used as Virgule. In Western epigraphy, the median point could be used as separator of words: it is the case in the Runic alphabet. In gotic, it is useful, in the numeration, to insulate the letters used like numbers.

In the languages with Chinese writing, like the Mandarin, or with derived writings, like the Japanese with its Kanji and its kana, the median point is a typographical artifice without bond with the pronunciation being used to separate from the foreign words (inter alia possible employment):

Mandarin (it is named there 間隔號 jiān Ge hào ): between a first name and a patronym foreigners (which one writes in the Western and nonEastern order) → 威廉. 莎士比亞 Wēilián Shāshìbǐyà (transcriptions in Pinyin);
: one uses the median point to separate the words from a sentence in foreign language written in Katakana.

Use in mathematics

The point, in Mathematical, is used as sign of Multiplication. However, in convention anglo-saxone, the point is used also as decimal Séparateur. It is thus of convention, in the works using the point like decimal separator, to use the median point like signs multiplication, for example:

not like decimal separator: 5.1⋅2 = 10.2

comma like decimal separator: 5,1⋅2 = 10,2

It is sometimes used, at least in certain anglophone publications like Handbook off the Birds off the World, like decimal separator.

One also finds it like separator in the shortened dates: 4·10·06 for October 4th, 2006.

The median point can also be used to materialize an action of groups or a product in an algebra or a group.

Data-processing coding

In Unicode, the Catalan median point and géorgien (·) is normally coded by U+00B7:

UTF-8: 0xC2 0xB7;
UTF-8: \302\267 ;
entity HTML: & middot; ;
entity HTML decimal: & #183; .

There exists however a L pointed precomposed:

capital Ŀ (U+013F):

UTF-8 : 0xC4 0xBF;
UTF-8: \304\277 ;
entity HTML decimal: & #319; .

tiny ŀ (U+0140):

UTF-8 : 0xC5 0x80;
UTF-8: \305\200 ;
entity HTML decimal: & #320; .

The Greek median point can be coded by U+0387 (·) but U+00B7 remains preferable:

UTF-8: 0xCE 0x87;
UTF-8: \ 316 \ 207;
entity HTML decimal: & #903; .

Not Chinese (.) U+FF0E (which is in fact a point with full width but is not inevitably defined by its median character):

UTF-8: 0xEF 0xBC 0x8E;
UTF-8: \357\274\216 ;
entity HTML decimal: & #65294; .

Not Japanese (・) U+30FB (full width):

UTF-8: 0xE3 0x83 0xBB;
UTF-8: \343\203\273 ;
entity HTML decimal: & #12539; .

Simple punctuation runic (᛫) U+16EB:

entity HTML decimal: & #5867; .

Not Multiplication (⋅) U+22C5:

entity HTML: & sdot; (scalar dowry) ;
entity HTML decimal: & #8901; .

In Latex, the median point can be obtained with \ textperiodcentered; in the environment mathematics ( $… $ or \ ) by the order \ cdot. In the same environment, one can in the case of use Points of suspension median, useful for example matrix S, with the order \ cdots.

Latin alphabet
Diacritiques of the Latin alphabet
Point prints of it

Solfège

Point of organ
Point of prolongation

Zh-min-nan: Tiong-kan-tiám

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