Double hyphen

{{Short description|Historic punctuation mark (⹀)}}

{{More citations needed|date=June 2012}}

{{Contains special characters}}

Image:Double hyphen in Walbaum-Fraktur.png

In Latin script, the double hyphen {{char|⹀}} is a punctuation mark that consists of two parallel hyphens ({{char|‐}}). It was a development of the earlier {{nowrap|double oblique hyphen}} {{char|⸗}}, which developed from a Central European variant of the virgule slash, originally a form of scratch comma. Similar marks (see below) are used in other scripts.

In order to avoid it being confused with the equals sign {{char|1==}}, the double hyphen is often shown as a double oblique hyphen in modern typography. The double hyphen is also not to be confused with two consecutive hyphens (-class="wikitable"NameGlyphCode pointPurpose{{sc2|CANADIAN SYLLABICS HYPHEN}}

| align="center" | ᐀

| align="center" | U+1400

| Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics to distinguish a hyphen from U+1428 {{sc2|CANADIAN SYLLABICS FINAL SHORT HORIZONTAL STROKE}} ( ᐨ ){{sc2|DOUBLE OBLIQUE HYPHEN}}

| align="center" | ⸗

| align="center" | U+2E17

| Coptic and ancient Near Eastern language scholarship{{sc2|DOUBLE HYPHEN}}

| align="center" | ⹀

| align="center" | U+2E40

| Generic (non-Asian) double hyphen{{sc2|KATAKANA-HIRAGANA DOUBLE HYPHEN}}

| align="center" | ゠

| align="center" | U+30A0

| Japanese and orthography (in Katakana or Hiragana script){{sc2|MODIFIER LETTER SHORT EQUALS SIGN}}

| align="center" | ꞊

| align="center" | U+A78A

| Used as a tone letter and also to mark clitics in interlinear glossing