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#20740
JanaBrailles
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Ok maybe no one is answering this because I'm being too general with my question?

So at 2.5a it says this about spacing with dashes:

"Print is often inconsistent in the spacing before and after a dash. In braille, no
space is left between a mid-sentence dash and the words that immediately precede and
follow it, regardless of print spacing."

It then shows an example:

He is tall -- six feet anyway.

and the brailled sentence indeed has no spacing before or after the dash. So far so good...

But then later on page 2-7 it says this regarding spacing and incomplete sentences:

"One space is always left before beginning a new braille sentence. Thus, if a dash
begins an incomplete sentence, or a fragment of a sentence or thought, it is preceded by a
space. And, when a dash falls at the end of an incomplete sentence or thought, it is
followed by a space. Examples:

Oh, my— Jessica wept."

And the brailled sentence above does have a space between the dash and Jessica. Maybe I just don't know what an incomplete sentence is but in the first example "he is tall -- six feet anyway" the second part seems like an incomplete sentence to me so why isn't there space between the dash and "six"?

For that matter...another rule says: (also on 2-7)

"When a dash represents a pause and separates complete sentences, it is recommended
that spaces be left before and after the dash."

Hooray! We won. — Oh, boy! — I am truly happy.

And if I go back to the original first sentence "he is tall -- six feet anyway" one could argue that there is a pause there...and if so...there should be some spacing after the dash.