fix: pedantic **foo:** and **"word"** emphasis parsing

[waiter]

Marked version:

18.0.5 / master

Markdown flavor: Markdown.pl / pedantic

Description

• Fixes 3938
• Inspired by the fix in markedjs/marked#3959, this implementation further optimizes emphasis and strong parsing for broader edge cases, such as:

**foo:**bar

**foo**bar

*foo:*bar

_foo:_bar

__foo:__bar

aa**"A"**and**"B"**aa

aa**'A'**and**'B'**aa

**'test'**  

Contributor

• Test(s) exist to ensure functionality and minimize regression (if no tests added, list tests covering this PR); or,
• no tests required for this PR.
• If submitting new feature, it has been documented in the appropriate places.

Committer

In most cases, this should be a different person than the contributor.

• CI is green (no forced merge required).
• Squash and Merge PR following conventional commit guidelines.

[vercel]

@waiter is attempting to deploy a commit to the MarkedJS Team on Vercel.

A member of the Team first needs to authorize it.

[vercel]

The latest updates on your projects. Learn more about Vercel for GitHub.

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
marked-website	Ready	Preview, Comment	Jun 22, 2026 2:05pm

[UziTech]

Thanks! this is great 💯