PHP function to break words on special characters

CleanWordBreaks.php

<?php

if (! function_exists('cleanWordBreaks')) {
    function cleanWordBreaks(string $text): string
    {
        $cleanText = $text;

        $cleanup = [];

        $makeReplacement = function ($regex, $replacement = '') use (&$cleanup, &$cleanText) {
            $cleanText = preg_replace_callback($regex, function ($matches) use (&$cleanup, $replacement) {
                if (! empty($replacement)) {
                    return preg_replace('/' . preg_quote($matches[0], '/') . '/', $replacement, $matches[0]);
                }

                $placeholder = uniqid();
                $cleanup[$placeholder] = $matches[0];

                return $placeholder;
            }, $cleanText);
        };

        # Protect special html characters (e.g. &nbsp;)
        $makeReplacement('/&[#a-zA-Z0-9]+;/');

        # Replace special characters with hidden line breaks
        $makeReplacement('/([' . preg_quote('-/&?', '/') . '])/', '$0<wbr>');

        # cleanup output
        foreach ($cleanup as $placeholder => $original) {
            $cleanText = str_replace($placeholder, $original, $cleanText);
        }

        # preg_ functions return null on error, so return original text if there was an error
        return $cleanText ?? $text;
    }
}