Guillemet
Guillemet
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Guillemet

Guillemets (/ˈɡɪləmɛt/, also UK: /ˈɡm/, US: /ˌɡ(j)əˈm, ˌɡɪləˈmɛt/, French: [ɡij(ə)mɛ]) are a pair of punctuation marks in the form of sideways double chevrons, « and », used as quotation marks in some languages. In some of these languages, "single" guillemets, and , are used for a quotation inside another quotation. Guillemets are not conventionally used in English.

Guillemets may also be called angle, Latin, Castilian, Spanish, or French quotes/quotation marks.[citation needed]

Guillemet is a diminutive of the French name Guillaume, apparently after the French printer and punchcutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598), though he did not invent the symbols: they first appear in a 1527 book printed by Josse Bade.

In Adobe software, its file format specifications, and in all fonts derived from these that contain the characters, the glyph names are incorrectly spelled guillemotleft and guillemotright (a malapropism: guillemot is actually a species of seabird). Adobe has acknowledged the error. Likewise, X11 mistakenly uses XK_guillemotleft and XK_guillemotright to name keys producing the characters.

Guillemets are smaller than less-than and greater-than signs, which in turn are smaller than angle brackets.

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:

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

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