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More specifically:

What dictionaries or lexicons (considering all ever published) of the English language contain exhaustive lists of the characters or symbols used in the formation of the words contained therein? In a modern dictionary, such a list would contain a-z, the apostrophe, and the hyphen. I would not count special symbols that are used only in guiding pronunciation.

This is not a question about typography, but a similar question must come up every time someone designs a typeface (whether produced physically or electronically).

Ana Nimbus
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    I'm glad you want to participate, but you're asking too many questions at once. Try to limit your query to something more specific. The help center has a lot of good advice for asking questions. – Spencer Jul 24 '18 at 21:52
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    It's English -- there are no "rules", no single "authority". The character set is whatever the typesetter can accomplish. – Hot Licks Jul 24 '18 at 21:56
  • When you design a new typeface today, you generally design it so they can typeset German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, in it. And that still isn't enough letters for Hungarian, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, and other languages. So I really don't think it's come up every time somebody designed a new typeface. – Peter Shor Jul 24 '18 at 21:57
  • And this character set has definitely changed over time. 200 years ago, there were just hyphens and dashes. We now have hyphens, en-dashes, and em-dashes. – Peter Shor Jul 24 '18 at 22:01
  • @HotLicks, English has rules. Otherwise, you would not be able to read this response. The rules are fluid, which is why I included the concept of change over time, and they are not strict. But this is not the same as a lack of rules. – Ana Nimbus Jul 24 '18 at 23:18
  • @PeterShor. By "just," I suppose you are restricting your comment to dash-like symbols? – Ana Nimbus Jul 24 '18 at 23:30
  • @Ana: correct – we have three dash-like symbols now—short, medium, and long; whereas in the 19th century, printers just used two lengths of dash-like symbols, short and long. – Peter Shor Jul 24 '18 at 23:32
  • @PeterShor, indeed. I have a copy of The Century Collegiate Handbook (3rd ed. Greever, Jones, and Jones; Appleton-Century-Crofts; 1952). Therein, they recognize the dash (not several kinds): "Use a single dash to denote hesitancy or breaking off. Use dashes in pairs to set off interrupters... Make the dash twice as long as the hyphen." – Ana Nimbus Jul 24 '18 at 23:42
  • Very strongly related. “The fact that such a character set was long considered adequate tells us something about the cultural narrowness of American civilization, or American technocracy, in the midst of twentieth century.” —Bringhurst – tchrist Jul 25 '18 at 01:52
  • These are English words per the OED: Allerød, fête, Niçoise, smørrebrød, après-ski, feuilleté, piñon, soirée, Bokmål, flügelhorn, plaçage, tapénade, brassière, Gödelian, prêt-à-porter, vicuña, caña, jalapeño, Provençal, vis-à-vis, crème, Madrileño, quinceañera, Zuñi, crêpe, Möbius, Ragnarök, α-ketoisovaleric acid, désoeuvrement, Mohorovičić discontinuity, résumé, (α-)lipoic acid, Fabergé, moiré, Schrödinger, (β-)nornicotine, façade, naïve, Shijō, ψ-ionone. – tchrist Jul 25 '18 at 01:54
  • The alphabet, numerals and symbols. Symbols are part of typography, not language. A period, a comma, an exclamation mark, are not "owned" by the English language, though presumed to be part of the writing by convention. It's not right to say that they are English language symbols. I had great difficulty in convincing my printer that the symbol for pi is an essential part of his inventory even though he is an exclusively English language printer. – Kris Jul 25 '18 at 06:06
  • @tchrist No one has control over borrowed words. If I say Myötähäpeä and it catches up, OED someday will gladly include it. – Kris Jul 25 '18 at 06:07
  • The Q is not about the English language and Usage. – Kris Jul 25 '18 at 06:14
  • @Kris: I think it's pretty clearly about English language and usage. It may be unanswerable, though, because it's not really specific enough about what it wants. – Peter Shor Jul 25 '18 at 11:52
  • @AnaNimbus - Depends on who you ask. When the "experts" often don't agree with each other, and what is considered "correct" can vary from one society to another, what you are talking about is closer to "guidelines" than "rules". – Hot Licks Jul 25 '18 at 12:24
  • I don't think requests for resources are on topic here. It might be on topic on Meta. Please check this Meta post. – JJJ Jul 25 '18 at 22:59
  • @PeterShor There's a previous comment by me providing the basis for my later comment. – Kris Jul 26 '18 at 06:34

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