Guillemet facts for kids

Guillemets, angle quotes, angle brackets, or carets, are a pair of punctuation marks in the form of sideways double chevrons (« and »), used as quotation marks in a number of languages. Sometimes a single guillemet (‹ or ›) is used for another purpose. They are not conventionally used in the English language.

Terminology

Guillemets may also be called angle, Latin, or French quotes / quotation marks. Unicode exists for single and double guillemets.

Guillemet is a diminutive of the French name Guillaume (equivalent to English William), apparently after the French printer and punchcutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–98), though he did not invent the symbols: they first appear in a 1527 book printed by Josse Bade. Some languages derive their word for guillemets analogously: the Irish term is Liamóg, from Liam 'William' and a diminutive suffix.

Uses

Guillemets are used pointing outwards («like this») to indicate speech in these languages and regions:

• Albanian
• Arabic
• Armenian
• Azerbaijani (used alongside "...")
• Belarusian
• Breton
• Bulgarian (rarely used; „...“ is official, but "..." prevails)
• Catalan
• Chinese (《 and 》 are used to indicate a book or album title)
• Esperanto (usage varies)
• Estonian (marked usage; „...“ prevails)
• Franco-Provençal
• French (spaced out by non-breaking spaces « like this », except in Switzerland)
• Galician
• Greek
• Italian
• Iowans make use of the guillemet when quoting text that also contains a quote, especially in the Des Moines metropolitan region. E.g. « The governor answered "I am thankful for those Iowans who have stepped forward to serve their fellow citizens." ». This practice – a local shibboleth – is a variation of the French usage and dates back to use by the newspaper Iowa Star (now the Des Moines Register).
• Japanese (《 and 》 are used to indicate a book or album title)
• North Korean (in South Korea " is used)
• Kurdish
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish (acceptable and defined to indicate a quote inside a quote by some language standards, but less common. See also: Polish orthography)
• Portuguese (used mostly in European Portuguese, due to its presence in typical computer keyboards; considered obsolete in Brazilian Portuguese)
• Romanian; only to indicate a quotation within a quotation
• Russian, and some languages of the former Soviet Union using Cyrillic script („...“ is also used for nested quotes and in hand-written text.)
• Spanish (uncommon in daily usage, but commonly used in publishing)
• Swiss languages
• Turkish
• Ukrainian

Guillemets are used pointing inwards (»like this«) to indicate speech in these languages:

• Croatian (marked usage; „...” prevails)
• Czech (marked usage; „...“ prevails)
• Danish („...“ is also used)
• Esperanto (very uncommon)
• German (except in Switzerland; preferred for printed matters; „...“ is preferred in handwriting)
• Hungarian (only used „inside a section »as a secondary quote« marked by the usual quotes“ like this)
• Polish (used to indicate a quote inside a quote as defined by dictionaries; more common usage in practice. See also: Polish orthography)
• Serbian (marked usage; „...“ prevails)
• Slovak (marked usage; „...“ prevails)
• Slovene („...“ and "..." also used)
• Swedish (this and »...» are rarely used; ”...” is the common and correct form)

Guillemets are used pointing right (»like this») to indicate speech in these languages:

• Finnish (”...” is the common and correct form)
• Swedish (this and «...» are rarely used; ”...” is the common and correct form)