Answer by rush for What is the difference between $* and $@?

   *      Expands  to  the positional parameters, starting from one.  When
          the expansion occurs within double quotes, it expands to a  sin‐
          gle word with the value of each parameter separated by the first
          character of the IFS special variable.  That is, "$*" is equiva‐
          lent to "$1c$2c...", where c is the first character of the value
          of the IFS variable.  If IFS is unset, the parameters are  sepa‐
          rated  by  spaces.   If  IFS  is null, the parameters are joined
          without intervening separators.
   @      Expands to the positional parameters, starting from  one.   When
          the  expansion  occurs  within  double  quotes,  each  parameter
          expands to a separate word.  That is, "$@" is equivalent to "$1"
          "$2"  ...   If the double-quoted expansion occurs within a word,
          the expansion of the first parameter is joined with  the  begin‐
          ning  part  of  the original word, and the expansion of the last
          parameter is joined with the last part  of  the  original  word.
          When  there  are no positional parameters, "$@" and $@ expand to
          nothing (i.e., they are removed).

// man bash . is ksh, afair, similar behaviour.