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Guillemet
Punctuation
apostrophe   '
brackets [ ]  ( )  { }  ⟨ ⟩
colon :
comma ,  ،  
dash ‒  –  —  ―
ellipsis   ...  . . .      
exclamation mark  !
full stop, period .
guillemets ‹ ›  « »
hyphen
hyphen-minus -
question mark  ?
quotation marks ‘ ’  “ ”  ' '  " "
semicolon ;
slash, stroke, solidus /    
Word dividers
interpunct ·
space     
General typography
ampersand &
asterisk *
at sign @
backslash \
basis point
bullet
caret ^
dagger † ‡ ⹋
degree °
ditto mark ” 〃
equals sign =
inverted exclamation mark ¡
inverted question mark ¿
komejirushi, kome, reference mark
multiplication sign ×
number sign, pound, hash #
numero sign
obelus ÷
ordinal indicator º ª
percent, per mil  % ‰
pilcrow
plus, minus + −
plus-minus, minus-plus ± ∓
prime     
section sign §
tilde ~
underscore, understrike _
vertical bar, pipe, broken bar |    ¦
Intellectual property
copyright ©
copyleft 🄯
sound-recording copyright
registered trademark ®
service mark
trademark
Currency
currency sign ¤

؋ ​₳ ​ ฿¢ ​₢ ​ $ ​₯ ​֏ ​ ₠ ​ ​ ƒ ​ ​ ₴ ​ ​₾ ​ ​₱ ​₰ ​£ ​ 元 圆 圓 ​₽ ​₹ ₨ ​ ₪ ​ ​ ₩ ​ ¥ ​

Uncommon typography
asterism
fleuron, hedera
index, fist
interrobang
irony punctuation
lozenge
tie
Related
In other scripts
  • Chinese
  • Hebrew
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Category
  • Book

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:

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)
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