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Obscure and invented punctuation marks

22 February 2013 11:55 GMT

An andorpersand

Flavorwire recently posted a roundup of interesting real punctuation marks (an article that seems to have been cribbed from an older mental_floss post actually). Most of these are the creations of Hervé Bazin who proposed new exclamation and question mark variations to signify acclamation, certainty, doubt, love and others.

Hervé Bazin’s proposed punctuation marks for acclamation, certainty, doubt and love

On the lighter side, College Humor has recently invented eight new punctuation marks (that it thinks) we desperately need.

Mockwotation marks

The mockwotation marks are my absolute favourites. I would do away with the actual quotation mark elements and just keep the wavy hands.

Similarly, I wonder if there could be a fun use for an air quotes / scare quotes punctuation mark? I would use them to distance myself from some awful turn of phrase by indicating that it’s not something I would usually say.

These were my other favourites:

The “I’m not angry” mark

I would probably attach this one permanently to my signature. (It’s not so much that I need to be brief, it’s that I highly value brevity.)

The sinsceroid

Sarcasm is pretty much my default state, so it would be nice to have a subtle way like this to express that I really mean what I say when it’s important.

The superellipsis

I could see this one being used in screenplays instead of beat.

Elsewhere on halfblog.net:

• Infrequently used punctuation marks – Zach Wiener’s SMBC punctuation inventions are even better than College Humour’s.
• Point d’ironie⸮ – The Wall Street Journal asks rhetorically ‘Is this the future of punctuation?’

Posted by Geoff

Categories: Typography

Tags: writing

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5 Responses to “Obscure and invented punctuation marks”

1. The mockwotation one is genius! It almost doesn’t need explanation and I could actually see myself using it!

   By RightSaidJames on 22 February 2013 at 22:03 GMT

   1. Also… CollegeHumor have supplied a font for these :D Pure genius.

      By RightSaidJames on 22 February 2013 at 22:13 GMT

      1. Hah! That is brilliant. :)

         By Geoff on 22 February 2013 at 22:29 GMT

2. […] Superellipses . o 0  – to indicate a dramatic pause (source: halfblog.net ) […]

   By my rant on punctuation | moderndayruth on 12 April 2013 at 12:38 BST

3. […] up sarcastic-looking punctuation.  Also see Geoff Rodgers’ HalfBlog which has had some great posts about punctuation.  In particular, he finds a humorous proposal for the […]

   By Sarcasm Marks? ¡¿We Don’t Do No Stinking Sarcasm! | Medianism.Org on 2 March 2014 at 03:09 GMT

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