Math symbol within a new-font word

Question

I would like to insert a bullet to separate the syllables within a word. The word appears in a new font, and I would like the bullet to appear (as in a dictionary) centered within the word.

Neither escaping to math mode (the second line) nor escaping from math mode (third line) works.

How can I reconcile this incompatibility between the text font and the math font?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{times,amsmath,amsfonts,amssymb}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newfont{\mynewfont}{pagk8r scaled 3000}

\begin{document}

{\mynewfont extra}

{\mynewfont ex}$\bullet${\mynewfont tra}

${\mynewfont ex}\bullet {\mynewfont tra}$

\end{document}

Answer 1

Assuming that \newfont is just for the purpose of the example (it should never be used in LaTeX, it's still defined for backwards compatibility), here's a way:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\pagestyle{empty}
\newfont{\mynewfont}{pagk8r scaled 3000}

\newcommand{\syllmark}{\kern.1em\raisebox{.3ex}{\scalebox{1.5}{\textbullet}}\kern.1em\relax}

\begin{document}

{\mynewfont extra}

{\mynewfont ex\syllmark tra}


\end{document}

Adjust the amounts of kerning, scaling and raising to suit.

---

The recommended way for defining the font is to use higher level commands. Since you want Avant Garde at 30pt, do

\DeclareRobustCommand\bigavantgarde{\fontsize{30}{42}\usefont{\encodingdefault}{pag}{m}{n}}
\DeclareTextFontCommand\textbigavantgarde{\bigavantgarde}

so you have both

{\bigavantgarde word}

and

\textbigavantgarde{word}