Once again one of my silly problems ;-). I search and search for an answer/the reason why this is happening.
$ _L="Adams, Fred, and Ken Aizawa \"The Bounds of Cognition\"" echo "// __ \$_L: |${_L}|" _AR=($(echo "${_L}" | awk -F'\"' '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) print $i}' )) _AR_L=${#_AR[@]} echo "// __ \$_AR_L: |${_AR_L}|" for(( _IX=0; _IX<${_AR_L}; _IX++ )); do echo "// __ [$_IX/$_AR_L): |${_AR[$_IX]}|" done // __ $_L: |Adams, Fred, and Ken Aizawa "The Bounds of Cognition"| // __ $_AR_L: |9| // __ [0/9): |Adams,| // __ [1/9): |Fred,| // __ [2/9): |and| // __ [3/9): |Ken| // __ [4/9): |Aizawa| // __ [5/9): |The| // __ [6/9): |Bounds| // __ [7/9): |of| // __ [8/9): |Cognition| $ This is the result I am looking for (probably the last empty string could be discarded): // __ $_L: |Adams, Fred, and Ken Aizawa "The Bounds of Cognition"| // __ $_AR_L: |3| // __ [0/3): |Adams, Fred, and Ken Aizawa | // __ [1/3): |The Bounds of Cognition| // __ [2/3): || lbrtchx