Language is a fickle thing. Spoken words are fleeting vibrations in the air, while the written word stands still, preserved for all eternity—or at least until someone spills a cup of tea on it. But as it turns out, the way we write things down is just as much a human invention as the words themselves. And perhaps nothing exemplifies this better than the simple, unassuming space.

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You see, in the early days, spaces between words didn’t exist at all. Latin texts were written in something called scriptura continua, which, if you’re imagining an interminable block of unbroken letters, is exactly what it was. There were no spaces, no commas, and certainly no handy full stops to tell you when you’d reached the end of a thought. If you’re feeling brave, try reading a page of dense prose without any breaks, and you’ll see just how taxing it must have been. Not for the faint-hearted, especially if your reading material consisted of ancient Roman tax codes or Cicero’s less thrilling speeches.

Originally, Romans tried to manage the chaos with something called the interpunct—a little dot, mid-height, between words. Cute, right? But these mid-dots weren’t as convenient as you’d think. They eventually fell out of fashion, leaving words to once again pile up against each other like an anxious crowd waiting for a delayed train. It wasn’t until some resourceful monks in the seventh century thought, “This is ridiculous, let’s make reading less like mental acrobatics,” that the concept of word spacing, as we know it, truly took off. Hats off to those monks, honestly—turning scriptura continua into something you could read without a magnifying glass and a headache.

And then, along came punctuation. Oh, punctuation! The glorious marks that tell us when to pause, when to stop, and when to yell in sheer disbelief—like the question mark (?!), when you discover early Latin, had none of these. The dots got demoted, moved down to the bottom of the line, and eventually became full stops. Punctuation began as a tool for reading aloud—a sort of musical notation for the voice—but evolved into something to guide the eye, allowing the inner voice to navigate text without getting lost.

The spaces and dots may seem like minor players, but they were transformative. They laid the foundation for silent reading, which revolutionised the entire act of reading itself. No longer were texts simply prompts for orators to recite; they became private journeys into the mind. By the time the printing press rolled around, spaces and punctuation were firmly in place, making it possible for literacy to spread and for people to sit in quiet corners, reading for pleasure. Who would have thought that the humble space—the “nothing” between words—would become a hero of the human intellect?

For a deeper dive into this rather niche but wildly fascinating history, check out Rob Words’ video on the subject here: Where Does Punctuation Come From?!. It’s well worth your time—a rollicking journey through the peculiarities of written language, spaces, and all the delightful stops along the way.

And remember, next time you type a message, mind the gap. It’s doing a lot more work than you think.