PUNCTUATION.
The signs of punctuation in Bisayan are the same as those in English, the rules for the use of the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), parenthesis (), dash (—), quotation marks (“ ”) and apostrophe (’) being identical. [[4]]
But the rules are different for the use of the interrogation and exclamation points, and hyphen.
In Bisayan, the Spanish way is followed in using two points of interrogation and two of exclamation, the one at the beginning of the question or exclamation (¿) (¡), and the other at the ending (?) (!).
While the hyphen (-) is also used in Bisayan to connect parts of a word divided at the end of a line, and to connect two or more nouns, adjectives, or particles, so as to form them into a single compound, it has an additional use which is to separate distinctly the syllables of certain words that would have a different meaning or none at all without the said separation. Examples:
| sál-ong | (to hook) | sálong | (resin) |
| súl-ay | (belching of an infant) | súlay | (prop) |
| bac-ad | (to unroll) | ||
| os-og | (to draw near from afar) | ||
| im-im | (lip) | ||
| sid-ap | (to look at) | ||
| san-o | (when, future) | ||
| cacan-o | (when, past)[1] | ||
NOTE.—The above separations are not of the same character as those caused by contractions or elisions, where the proper sign is not a hyphen, but an apostrophe. As,
| gáb’i | from gabii | (night) |
| cabitón’an, | from cabitoónan | (stars) |
| pabáy’i, | from pabayái | (leave him or her) |
| it’ im’ bugtò ng̃an hit’ ac’ patód, | from iton imo bugtò ng̃an hitón acon patód | (your brother or sister and my cousin). |
Therefore, it would not be correct to write gab-i, cabiton-an, pabay-i, where the apostrophe should be employed instead of the hyphen. However, the apostrophe is used only when needed to avoid wrong pronunciation or confusion. [[5]]So the last of the preceding examples is written without any sign of punctuation, thus: it im bugtò ng̃an hit ac patód.
[1] In most of the towns of the island of Sámar, such separation as well as that by apostrophe is frequently disregarded, this being one of the most noticeable differences between the Sámar and Leyte dialects. [↑]