[Trennmuster] Questions to better understand prefix and suffix

[Guenter Milde]

On  4.01.14, Pander wrote:

> Hyphenation priority is:
> 1 -= hyphenation of compound's suffix, multiple = have higher priority
> 2 |= hyphenation of compound's prefix, multiple = have higher priority
> 3 =  hyphenation of compound, multiple = have higher priority
> 4 |  hyphenation of word's prefix, priority order is from left to right
> 5 -  hyphenation of word, multiple - have higher priority

This is a misunderstanding: The priority (Güte) for hyphenation at this point
is generally

  "=" (compound parts) > "|" (prefix) > "-" (ordinary)
  
For hyphenation points of the same category, relative priority is indicated
by repeating the hyphenation character.

For mixed hyphenation signs (|= and -=), the first character indicates
the category of the hyphenation point while a following "=" indicates
that the prefix or suffix is added to a compound word. See the examples in
"wortliste/dokumente/README.wortliste"
(The README uses the "Bindungsstärke" B of a hyphenation point, where
 B = 1/hyphenation priority)

  un|=wahr=schein-lich  un + (wahr + scheinlich)
  an-dert=halb-=fach     ((an+dert) + halb) + fach


> There is a character to indicate a prefix |
> There is a character combination to indicate a compound prefix |=
> There is a character combination to indicate a compound suffix -=

> 1) Why is there a prefix character in the first place? Is it only to
> prevent too many -'s?

No. In German, there is a distinction of hyphenation points at morpheme
boundaries from hyphenation at "Sprechsilben". This manifests itself at
several places, e.g. the break-up of ligatures: 

* Ligature "fl" is present in zweif-le but broken in Auf|lage.

and the spelling of the S-sound when typesetting in Fraktur:

* Weſ-pe (long s for ſp even if the s it at the end of a syllable) vs.
  Trans|por-t (round s in sp when s ends a morpheme).


> 2) If there is no reason for |, then |= could be written as =- Correct?

There is indeed no such "hard" criterium for the distinction of | and =,
both indicate a hyphenation at the morpheme boundary.

note: According to the current orthography rules, you may always spell
  compound words with hyphen if this improves clarity (i.e. Schiff-Fahrt
  instead of Schifffahrt). No such rule exists for prefixes (i.e. 
  "un-gezogen" would be normally considered a wrong spelling).

And yes, using distinct characters saves many repetitions because

a) "=" is in most cases less binding than "|" (i.e. the binding to a prefix
   is tighter and
b) prefixes are right-binding:

This means that instead of
   
   Vor|aus|wahl=lis-te        (Vor + (aus + wahl)) + (lis-te)

we whould have to write

   Vor==aus=wahl===lis-te

> 3) If there is a reason why is there no character to indicate a suffix?

In contrast to a prefix, a suffix does not force a hyphenation point.
Hyphenation in base+suffix follows the "Sprechsilben".

  woh-nung    morphems: wohn + ung

However, if a hyphenation point coincides with a morpheme boundary, it is
usually a better choice than otherwise. Therefore we indicate this case with
--.

> Is there no need for it?

> A candidate could be
> http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/a6/index.htm

I don't know if there is a need.

> 4) If you would introduce a suffix character, then you would also have
> =¦ instead of -= This would make it more consistent and balanced.

This depends. I would always read left to right, the first character
indicates category, i.e. even then it should be "¦=".

> Can you find examples of double suffix usage?

  Wirk--lich--keit
  Herr--lich--keit
  Ver|ein--bar--keit
  
  Ver|ein--fa-ch¦ung # no hyphenation at ¦ !!!!

Hope this helps.

Remember, that the "wortliste" syntax is devised for a special purpose and a
special language by pragmatic non-linguists.

Günter