Plenken

Plenk ( from the English blank for "( the ) spaces") refers to the net jargon a typographically incorrect file space before a punctuation mark or word mark. This includes, for example, comma, period, exclamation mark and question mark or dash and cut-off point. The use is contrary to the rules of pleading or of touch typing.

Neither before the question before the exclamation mark are according to the rules of the German language (according to DIN 5008 ) and in many other languages ​​, spaces, unlike, for example, in French (see below).

Spaces before punctuation marks are in German, however, required in an indent in the opening parenthesis and ellipsis, provided that they are for at least one whole word (see ellipse), as well as a hyphen when it is preceded by part of a word, a the contents to represent according to repeat part of word (example: goods production and sale ).

Examples

Plenks result in automatic word wrapping by programs that do not # 14 of the Unicode specification or do not implement the annex UAX properly, often lead to undesirable effects, such as the following example shows:

Here the term is torn apart distorting.

Here the replacement of the hyphen with an en dash is available separately, see below.

Word origin and history

The word " Plenk " is a corruption of the English word for ' spaces ', blank. It was introduced around 1988 by John " Jödel " Leckebusch in MausNet; since the mid- 1990s, " Plenk " also in the German Usenet is a fixed expression.

Formal and linguistically it is in " Plenk " is a word-formation on the way to Lehnwortbildung.

From " Plenk " in turn was the complementary term " Klemp ".

Special case brackets

Often a space is inserted both before and after an opening or closing parenthesis. This is wrong, the space belongs only before the opening and after the closing brace (if it does not follow a punctuation mark ).

Would the lack of a not actually permissible space before a closing parenthesis come to a Sinnentstellung, it may, however, be set:

• If, in a closed set in brackets with a smiley face, the two brackets would not be able to distinguish (the first from Smiley, the second from the brace set) ( is a smiley face with two brackets also a valid Smiley variant). In this case, a space between Smiley and closing parenthesis is possible if the separation does not take place by means of ellipsis or similar.

Print set

Plenken and word processing

In word processing programs such as OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Word by two spaces enclosed by a hyphen automatically en dash ( " indent " ) is replaced with the default settings. This can lead to completely distorts the meaning Plenken spellings.

French language

In contrast to the German and English which use a space before the question mark (? ), Exclamation mark is in French (!), Colon ( :) and semicolon required (;) in the pleading. In addition, there is a space here after opening ( « ) and before closing (" ) quotation marks ( guillemets ). This rule also applies to combinations of punctuation: " Quoi? »

In order to prevent unwanted line breaks, thereby breaking spaces will be used. Alternatively, programs can be used to make the the transition corresponding to the Unicode line breaking algorithm which prevents in this case with the use of an ordinary space character a break. Is not possible to use a non-breaking space, so also applies to the French that no spaces should be used. Are different Spatienbreiten present, only a half space is often placed before the semicolon.

In typographically correct typesetting the characters mentioned above are excluded with quarter square, the font size is not taken into account.

The peculiarity of the French is related to the own typographic tradition: So many italics were used in early printing; also the grapheme f at the end of a word is more common than in other languages ​​. This is always a distance ( from the base point of f ) to the point or comma, which is then reacted analogously with the other punctuation.

Spanish Language

In Spanish, spaces can before the ousted question and call sign appear, who are at the beginning of the block of questions and exclamations: ¿ Te gusta andar? ¡ Vamos!

Klemp

Complementary to " Plenk " is - again, especially in network jargon - the lack of a space, punctuation or designated word characters as Klemp after one and is typographically usually just as wrong as a Plenk ( see exceptions below ).

Term development

The word " Plumber " is - as well as " Plenk " - a Lehnwortbildung ( from English " clamp" for " clamp " ( the German word " clip " with " clamp" related ), in the sense that for two words to close are clamped together). Secondly, the choice probably also fell so far in this word formation, since it is the " consonantal reversal " of " Plenk ". Thus, the complementarity of the two terms reflects both orthographically and phonetically resist ( interchanging p and k). Nevertheless, " Klemp " probably just as " Plenk " a neologism.

The omission of such a space character is referred to as a derivation Klempen.

In practice tolerated exceptions

The omission of a typographically correct space character happens sometimes consciously, in particular in order to save, for example, restrictions on the number of characters characters. Examples:

• The above micro-blogging services (eg Twitter) sent messages can not contain more than 140 characters normally.
• Before an increasing number of cell phone models have been possible in the 2000s, so-called Multi- SMS to send ( Concatenated Message), this limitation also applied to the short messages in mobile communications, from which a single still has a maximum of 160 characters.

In cases such as these, a Plumber is usually tolerated, even if he still is considered typographically " ugly ".

Chinese and Japanese writing systems

In the Chinese and Japanese writing systems are no spaces regularly set before and after punctuation. The background is that there are taking punctuation generally the same square space ( square ) as a character, and, where relevant, within this space on the left or right edge. Punctuation marks such as periods (.), Comma (,) and closing brackets ()) are thereby left open brackets ( () right within their fourfold. Therefore, with writers with appropriate cultural background partially a tendency to Klempen also in the Latin writing system.