__________________ ST: OLD SCHOOL In languages with a literary tradition, there is interrelation between orthography and the question of what is considered a single word. Word separators (typically space marks) are common in modern orthography of languages using alphabetic scripts, but these are (excepting isolated precedents) a modern development (see also history of writing).
In English orthography, words may contain spaces if they are compounds or proper nouns such as ice cream or air raid shelter.
