Rules for compositors and readers at the University Press, Oxford · Oxford University Press
FÉCAMP A GENÈVE MACHINES A VAPEUR.
In these the preposition A takes no accent; but we must, to be correct, print Étienne, Étretat; and DÉPÔT, ÉVÊQUE, PRÉVÔT in cap. lines.[79] Small capitals should be accented throughout, there being no fear of the grave accent breaking off. 3. _The Grave and Acute Accents._—There has been an important change in recent years as to the use of the grave and acute accents in French. It has become customary to spell with a grave accent (`) according to the pronunciation, instead of with an acute accent (´), certain words such as collège (instead of collége), avènement (instead of avénement), &c. The following is a list of the most common: allège l’Ariège arpège avènement barège collège le Corrège cortège évènement florilège grège lège Liège, liège[80] manège mège la Norvège or Norwège piège privilège sacrilège sacrilègement siège solfège sortilège sphège[81] 4. _Hyphens._—Names of places containing an article or the prepositions _en_, _de_, should have a hyphen between each component part, thus: Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Valery-en-Caux, although the Académie leaves out the last two hyphens. Names of places, public buildings, or streets, to which one or more distinguishing words are added, take hyphens: Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Vitry-le-François, rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, le Pont-Neuf, le Palais-Royal, l’Hôtel-de-la-Monnaie. In numbers hyphens are used to connect quantities under 100: e. g. vingt-quatre; trois cent quatre-vingt-dix; but when _et_ joins two cardinal numbers no hyphen is used, e.g. vingt et un; cinquante et un. But print vingt-et-unième.
5. _Spacing._—No spaces to be put before the ‘points de suspension’, i.e. three points close together, cast in one piece, denoting an interruption (...). In very wide spacing a thin space may be put before a comma,[82] or before or after a parenthesis or a bracket. Colons, metal-rules, section-marks, daggers, and double-daggers take a space before or after them exactly as words. Asterisks and superior figures, not enclosed in parentheses, referring to notes, take a thin or middle space before them. Points of suspension are always followed by a space. For guillemets see pp. 86, 87. A space is put after an apostrophe following a word of two or more syllables (as a Frenchman reckons syllables, e.g. bonne is a word of two syllables):— Bonn’ petite... Aimabl’ enfant!... Spaces are put in such a case as 10 h. 15 m. 10 s. (10 hours 15 min. 10 sec.), also printed 10^h 15^m 10^s. Chemical symbols are not spaced, thus C^{10}H^{12}(OH)CO.OH. 6. _Awkward divisions: abbreviated words and large numbers expressed in figures._—One should avoid ending a line with an apostrophe, such as: Quoi qu’ | il dise? If a number expressed in figures is too long to be got into a line, or cannot be taken to the next without prejudice to the spacing, a part of the number should be put as a word, thus: 100 mil- | lions.
7. _Division of words._—Words should be divided according to syllables, as in what the French call épellation (i.e. syllabication). Therefore a consonant should never be separated from the vowel following. Thus divide: amou-reux, cama-rade; and always take over _vr_: li-vraison. If a consonant is doubled, the consonants may be divided: mil-lion, pil-lard, in-nocent. It is optional to divide ob-scurité or obs-curité, according to convenience. Vowels are divided only in compound words: e.g. extra-ordinaire; not Mo-abite, mo-yen. In compound words an apostrophe may be divided from a consonant following; thus: grand’-mère, grand’-route. Divide sei-gneur, indi-gnité (gn pronounced as _ni_ in ‘mania’), i.e. take gn over. The following divisions should be avoided: Ma-ximilien, soi-xante, Me-xique; é-légant. In a narrow measure a syllable of two letters may stand at the end of a line: ce-pendant, in-décis; but a syllable of two letters must not be taken over to the next line; therefore élégan-ce, adversi-té, are not permissible; but élégan-ces, mar-que, abri-cot, are tolerated. Avoid terminating a paragraph with only the final syllable of a word in the last line. Verbs taking the so-called euphonic _t_ should always be divided before the latter, thus: Viendra- | t-il? Avoid dividing abbreviated words. Etymological division finds no favour in French, unless it is in accord with épellation, or syllabication, as in trans-porter, trans-poser. But divide transi-tion, transi-ger.
Mute syllables may be turned over to the next line, thus: ils mar-quent, les hom-mes. 8. _Abbreviations._—Such words as article, chapitre, scène, titre, figure, are abbreviated only when in parentheses, as references; in the text they are put in full. If, in works divided into articles, the first article is put in full (thus: Article premier), those that follow may be in figures and abbreviated (as Art. 2). Saint, sainte, when they occur very often, as in religious works, may be abbreviated, taking a capital letter: S. Louis, Ste Marie. But not when they form part of the name of a place, e.g. Saint-Germain-des-Prés; in which case Saint- and Sainte- take a capital and are followed by a hyphen.[83] (See also p. 75.) The words monsieur, madame, monseigneur, messeigneurs, messieurs, mesdames, mademoiselle, mesdemoiselles, are written in full and all in lower-case when addressing a person: Oui, madame; Non, monsieur le duc. Also in the following instances: J’espère que monseigneur viendra; j’ai vu monsieur votre père. In most other cases M. (for monsieur), M^{me} (for madame), Mgr. or M^{gr} (for monseigneur), and so on, are used. The words Sa Majesté, Son Éminence, Leurs Altesses, when followed by another title, are put as initials, thus S. M. l’Empereur; but not otherwise. The name Jésus-Christ is abbreviated only when in parentheses after a date, thus: (337 avant J.-C.). This is more frequently printed 337 A.J.C.
Other examples of abbreviations: liv. (livre) ch. (chapitre) t. (tome) d^o (ditto) f^o (folio) in-f^o (in-folio) in-8^o (in-octavo) in-4^o (in-quarto) ms. (manuscrit) mss. (manuscrits) n^o (numéro) P.-S. (post-scriptum) I^{er} } (premier) 1^{er} } II, 2^e (deuxième) etc. (et cætera) c.-à-d. (c’est-à-dire) C^{ie} (compagnie) D^r (docteur) M^e (maître) M^{lle} (mademoiselle) N.-S. J.-C. (Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ) C^{te} (comte) M^{is} (marquis) V^{ve} (veuve) S.A. (Son Altesse) LL. AA. II. (Leurs Altesses Impériales) Abbreviations of metric signs: [84]Mm. (myriamètre) {84}Km. (kilomètre) {84}Hm. (hectomètre) dam. (décamètre) m. (mètre) dm. (décimètre) cm. (centimètre) mq. (mètre carré) mm. (millimètre) mmq. (millimètre carré) mmc. (millimètre cube) ha. (hectare) a. (are) ca. or m^2. (centiare) das. (décastère) s. or m^3. (stère) ds. (décistère) t. (tonne) q. (quintal métrique) kg. (kilogramme) hg. (hectogramme) dag. (décagramme) g. (gramme) dg. (décigramme) cg. (centigramme) mg. (milligramme) kl. (kilolitre) hl. (hectolitre) dal. (décalitre) l. (litre) dl. (décilitre) cl. (centilitre) ml. (millilitre) Put: 20 francs, 20 mètres, 20 litres, 20 milligrammes. If, however, followed by fractions, then put—20 fr. 50, or 20^{fr},50; 20 m. 50, or 20^m,50; 20 l. 50, or 20^l,50; 20 kilog. 5, or 20^{kilo},5. In works crowded with figures, one can even put—0^m,5 for 5 décimètres; 0^m,15 for 15 centimètres; 0^m,008 for 8 millimètres. The cubic metre followed by a fraction is given thus: 4^{mc},005 or 4^{m3},005 (= 4 mètres cubes 5 millimètres cubes); the square metre thus: 4^{mq},05 or 4^{m2},05 (= 4 mètres carrés 5 décimètres carrés).
The French use a decimal comma instead of a decimal point—2,3 = 2·3. The words kilogrammes, kilomètres, and kilogrammètres, followed by fractions, are given thus: 50 kg. 3 or 50^{kg},3; 5 km. 3 or 5^{km},3; 2 kgm. 4 or 2^{kgm},4. Per cent. is generally put 0/0, but pour 100, p. 100, and % are also used. In business letters pour cent is always pour %, e.g. A trente jours, 3 pour % d’escompte. 9. _Numerals._—When cardinal numbers are expressed in Roman lower-case letters, the final unit should be expressed by a j, not an i, thus: ij, iij, vj, viij. Numbers are put in full if only occasionally occurring in the text. If used statistically, figures are used. Degrees of temperature are generally given thus: 15°, 15 (in English 15° 15′). Age or the time of day must be given in full: huit ans, six heures (eight years, six o’clock). Dates, figures, &c., are put in full in legal documents: l’an mil neuf cent quatre (the year one thousand nine hundred and four). One should not put ‘de 5 à 6,000 hommes’, but ‘de 5,000 à 6,000 hommes’. Commas in figures are used as in English, thus: 20,250 fr. 25 or 20,250^{fr},25. But dates, and numbers in general, are always put without a comma: l’année 1466; page 1250; Code civil, art. 2000.
Fractions with a horizontal stroke are preferred in mathematical and scientific works; but in ordinary works the diagonal stroke is used, thus: 1/2, 2/3 (½, ⅔). In logarithm tables the fractional part of a logarithm is printed with spaces, thus: Log. 2670 = 3, 426 5113; and also: Log. 2670 = 3, 4 265 113. 10. _Roman and italic._—In algebraical formulae the capital letters are always put in roman and the small letters in italic. If, however, the text is in italic, the small letters are put in roman type. The titles of works, of plays, of journals, names of ships, of statues, and titles of tables mentioned in the text, are put in italic; thus: La pièce _La Chatte blanche_; J’ai vu _Les Rois en exil_; On lit dans _Le Figaro_; le journal _Le Temps_; le transport _Bien-Hoa_. Foreign words[85] and quotations are, as in English, italicized: Agir _ab irato_; _Cave canem!_ lisait-on.... Superior letters in words italicized should be in italic, thus: _Histoire de Napoléon I^{er}_. 11. _Reference figures._—References to notes are generally rendered thus: (1), or thus: ^1. Sometimes an asterisk between parentheses (*) or standing alone *, or italic superior letters (^_a_), are used. The second example (^1) is the best from the English point of view. The figure in the note itself is put either 1. or (1) or ^1. In many works the reference figure is put ^1, and the note-figure 1.
In the case of a citation within a citation, the « must stand at the commencement of each line of the enclosed citation: On lit dans _Le Radical_: « Une malheureuse erreur a été commise par un de nos artistes du boulevard. Ayant à dire: « Mademoiselle, je ne « veux qu’un mot de vous! » , il a fait entendre ces paroles: « Mademoiselle, je ne veux qu’un mou de « veau! » In passages quoted down the side put an en quad after the « commencing each line. Only one » is put at the end of two citations ending simultaneously.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.