From Interpunct to Interrobang
Page 2

Evolution of Early Standards and Precursors to Punctuation Marks

Transcribed language did not become widely standardized until the invention of movable type and the innovation of printing in the early Renaissance period. It stands to reason that transcribed works that are essentially duplicated and distributed to a wide audience would help popularize writing standards.

For example, Renaissance printer Aldus Manutius is credited with popularizing the use of a dot on the baseline to indicate a full stop (period) in prose, and one slash to indicate pause. Eventually, Manutius' single slash dropped down to the baseline with its cousin, the period, and took on a little hooked form differentiating itself to become our modern-day comma. Moreover, the common slash, also known as a solidus, begat the virgule. The solidus is correctly used to note separation of words (such as in and/or). The virgule however, a slash with a more horizontal slope, is used between numbers when expressing a fraction.

Prior to the introduction of the quotation mark, the reader had no visual cue and assumed direct quotation from the context of the text. Quotation marks began to appear in printed works in 17th century England. However, there was no standardization for the use of these marks. In early works readers would find quotation marks, distractingly, at the beginning of each line of a long quote. Eventually this typesetting style was abandoned and the quote marks were removed, but not the space they occupied. Today's experienced typesetter cum desktop publisher will see the relation to our modern-day style of setting block quotes, indented text following the paragraph above. Even today quotation mark use is not standard. Many of our European brethren use guillemets (angle quotes, or "crows feet") to denote a quotation, and depending on the language, the guillemets face into the phrase or out of the phrase. Even within the same language, use is not consistent. Opening and closing quote marks, particularly in long passages, are handled differently in North America as opposed to the way they are in the United Kingdom.

The question mark, also known as the interrogation point, developed in England in the 16th century, and is believed to have derived from the Latin word quaestio, meaning question or simply, what. With its Latin abbreviation of Qo, it is easy to see how this punctuation mark was developed. Another explanation is that it derived from medieval manuscripts where a dot was followed by an upward, curving stroke, indicating the rising intonation of voice as in a spoken question.

Like the question mark mentioned above and the ampersand noted earlier, many of our typographic symbols could be considered abbreviations or even ligatures. The pound sign (#), as it is called in the US and known as the hash mark in most other countries, may have been an abbreviation for the French term pound avoirpois a term dealing with weight and volume, or a refining of the abbreviation for pound (lb.) with a line on the lowercase L. In either case we use this symbol to indicate a number, as in #2 pencil, or for weight, as in 5# bag of potatoes. Some symbols were created from scratch. Printers of family trees in Feudal times needed a simple symbol to indicate that a date was a year of birth, the cross usually indicated date of death. These printers are attributed with inventing the asterisk, a small, usually six-sided star shape.

Of special interest is the at (@) symbol. Its origin is easy to see for English readers and writers — a quick notation for the word at. This abbreviation, or perhaps more accurately ligature, is commonly used by grocers and accountants to note phrases such as 120 buttons @ $1.00/dozen. Others postulate that the at symbol has much older origins — from Greek or Latin word abbreviations concerning weights and measures. However, most 21st century readers recognize this symbol as an important component in an email address. A programmer, Raymond Tomlinson, working on the world's first email system is credited with using this sign to separate the name of the computer user from his network's location, but because its former modern-day use is limited primarily to English speakers, it has various names throughout the world. Some of the more interesting names for the at symbol: the Dutch call it an apestaart (monkey's tail); Czech people christened it zavinac (pickled herring); and Danish named it alfa-tegn (elephant's trunk).

One of our most emotional analphabetic symbols is the exclamation point. Often over used and inappropriately placed, its origins have several possibilities. Some postulate that this symbol represents a Roman stylus over an interpunct, inserted by the scribe when stirred by the emotion of the text or when finished with a particularly difficult manuscript. Others suggest this mark represents a miniature scepter over an interpunct to stress the importance of the preceding line or phrase. It is even suggested that the exclamation mark is a phallic symbol connoting a feeling of braggadocio or to indicate a virile growl. Perhaps the most logical explanation of this character's origin is that this symbol is an abbreviation, or ligature, of the letters for the word io, a Latin exclamation of joy.

By the 17th century, printing had a two-hundred-year history. Experiments with spacing, signs, and symbols had settled down to a system we recognize today. There is a space between each word, the first letter of a sentence is capitalized, a sentence ends in a period, and paragraphs are organized as trains of thought and indicated by indentation or line space. However the finer points, much to the chagrin of modern-day elementary school students (and adult writers such as this one), are not as clear or easily understood. The correct use of serial commas, colons, and semicolons are the domain of editors and English teachers.

20th Century Developments

In the early 1960s, the head of a New York advertising agency thought a new punctuation mark was needed. Martin K. Speckter proposed a new symbol that would convey a surprised question or emotional declaration such as in, "You've got to be kidding me?!" The resulting character is called an interrobang, a combination of the word bang, printer's slang for an exclamation point, and the Latin word interrogotio, meaning rhetorical question. The glyph is a combination of the exclamation and question marks. Much excitement surrounded this new character. Type foundries included the symbol in their fonts. Typewriter manufacturers included it on their keyboards. The interrobang was featured in newspapers and magazines. Obviously the interrobang did not catch on, but, curiously, you can find this character in Wingdings 2.

More than sixty years before the interrobang, the French proposed a point d'ironie. This irony mark looked like a sloped, backward question mark. Later on, French punctuation to convey authority, doubt, and love, among other emotions, were suggested. None of these French punctuation marks made it past the conceptual stage of artists and authors.

Today's quick-fingered emailers and compulsive senders of text messages have developed their own lexicon of abbreviations, ligatures, punctuation (or lack thereof), and spacing adapted for speed and economy for a small viewing area. Combining the letterforms and symbols from our standard alphabet, our cyber-scribes have created pictograms to convey a wide variety of emotions. These emoticons convey some very specific emotions (although you may have to turn your head to see/read them). Like the grammar students of classical Rome, this form of writing is shunned for formal written prose and documentation.

Written language, like its spoken counterpart, adapts to the culture that employs it. The written/printed part usually lags behind. We can pronounce things just fine. Recording it in writing is another matter. For instance, editors debate over new words such as the expression of the phrase most common for electronic mail. Most have finally settled on this spelling: e-mail. (X-Ray Magazine conforms to its own style guide.) Marketers, especially in the hi-tech arena, throw capitalization and spacing conventions to the wind in order to convey a modernity or innovation. This author's employer provides a great example: QuarkXPress (X and P capitalized, no space after the K).

Just like fads and styles come and go in design and use of typefaces, the way we present written language changes too, but at a slower pace. The adoption of punctuation and spacing depends on two things: many readers seeing and reading it, and then accepting that it makes the task of reading comfortable and comprehendible. Editors will chime in that there is a third, maybe most important, point: that any change or innovation in spacing, punctuation, or analphabetic character use should only be employed when it aids the reader in understanding the author's intentions.

Explicuit Feliciter!

1 | 2 | PDF Version

If you enjoy our articles, click here to subscribe.
Free JavaScripts provided by The JavaScript Source