Should a lone dash be a separator, so John Smith - Jr. reads family 'Smith' rather than '-'? #820

A dash standing alone between words is read as a name word. Every release since 1.4.0 reads it that way:

Declaring the dash with Policy(extra_suffix_delimiters={' - '}) changes none of these. C10 (a declared delimiter parts a trailing suffix part) applies only after a comma, and in the part before the first comma a declared delimiter is a word.

The maiden case was recorded rather than fixed in decisions/M2's 2026-09-19 #533 review entry, "left for its own issue". It is one symptom of the shape here.

Proposal, in rule shape

When: a token consists only of a dash (hyphen-minus, en dash, em dash) standing between words, as in "John Smith - Jr.".

Then, one of:

• (A) It is a separator (T1). It splits like whitespace and is dropped: John Smith - Jr. → family 'Smith', suffix 'Jr.'.
• (B) It is a suffix delimiter, as a comma would be. It parts the name there: Jane Doe - MA reads as Jane Doe, MA.
• (C) It stays a word. The rule states this as an Accepted cost.

Because: a lone dash carries no name content, so it can't be a family name. A dash inside a word (Smith-Jones) stays a hyphen; this question is only about a dash with spaces around it.

Boundaries that stay as they are: Smith-Jones (one word); Smith, RN - CRNA (C10's Accepted bullet keeps the core a word there for v1 parity, and the answer here would have to say whether that changes).

Open questions

1. A, B or C?
2. Should one answer cover every dash (hyphen-minus, en dash, em dash), and other lone punctuation such as / or ·?
3. Does the answer change the comma path, where C10 already reads a declared delimiter as a comma?