[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 242822] Em dash should not be separated from preceding word

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=242822

--- Comment #4 from Brad Andalman <bya at 180g.co> ---
UAX#14 does assert that "Line breaks can occur before and after an EM DASH." It also claims that the only use for an EM DASH is to "set off parenthetical text." That is only one of the ways that an EM DASH can be used, however.

The Chicago Manual of Style, for instance, enumerates EIGHT different, valid uses for an EM DASH. In entry 6.87 of the 17th edition, the Chicago Manual of Style mentions that an EM DASH should be used for "sudden breaks or interruptions." One of the examples it uses is as follows:

"Well, I don't know," I began tentatively. "I thought I might—”
"Might what?" she demanded.

If that trailing EM DASH followed by a quotation mark were to end on its own line, it would look terrible. This is easy to make happen on a simple web page, as in my original attachment, but it is easily seen in Apple Books as well. (I'll attach a screenshot of The Invisible Man that illustrates this.)

The Chicago Manual of Style also addresses the problem of line breaks directly (in 6.90): "In printed publications, line breaks should generally be made after an em dash but not before, in the manner of hyphens. In the case of a closing quotation mark (or any other mark of punctuation) immediately following the dash, however, the quotation mark and dash MUST NOT BE BROKEN AT THE END OF A LINE" [emphasis mine].

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