Georgian Paragraph Separator

It signals a major pause or division in historic Georgian writing. By itself, it does not end a paragraph in the text stream; a line break must follow.

The three-dot mark in old Georgian manuscripts belongs to a long history of division signs: Georgian division marks appear in 6th-century literature, centuries before an 11th-century system associated with Ephrem Mtsire. In that system, groups of one, two, three, and six dots had different functions. Three dots marked a longer pause; six marked a complete ending or the start of new narration. These cues helped readers follow texts when spacing and punctuation could be inconsistent.

Is ჻ still used?

It is uncommon in ordinary Modern Georgian writing. Modern Georgian uses punctuation marks common in European scripts, so ჻ reads as historical, manuscript-oriented, or calligraphic rather than routine punctuation.

In older manuscripts, the three-dot mark could end either a paragraph or a word, and punctuation placement varies between copies. A modern edition's layout can make that boundary look more definite than it did on the original page.