1. Improved apparatus for automatically hyphenating data segments comprising in combination: a source of data segments; conversion means connected to said source for encoding each of said data setments; storage means containing representations of a dictionary of data segments including representations of the legal hyphenation points for the data segments; means connected to said conversion means for calculating an address for each of said encoded data segments; accessing means for addressing said storage means at the calculated address; means connected to said storage means for receiving the representations of the legal hyphenation points stored at the accessed address for the encoded data segment and operable to modify each said data segment by inserting hyphens in the data segment at the legal hyphenation points.