What; people don’t have favorite punctuation marks?
I’m reading “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” which is not only more interesting than I’d even imagined (and I imagined a lot) but decidedly funnier than I imagined. (I’m planning on writing to Lynne Truss and asking if she’ll write a blurb or, perhaps, even the foreword to the book.)
Truss mentions the first printed semicolon and the invention of italics, both attributed to Teobaldo Mannucci, usually called Aldus Manutius the Elder. I found an interesting page of images of early printed semicolons and other information at the website of Alabama’s Auburn University.
So next time someone asks you “What’s Joel’s favorite punctuation mark?” you’ll have the definitive answer: the semicolon. (Did you notice how I managed to make it the first punctuation in this post?)
Comments 4
I admire your choice, Joel. As a naive English speaker (not native) I just love ‘em all. To a point.
Posted 26 Jan 2010 at 5:31 am ¶I may have to write a short book called ‘the art of punctuation’ or something like that, because I have to agree, they’re all pretty lovable.
Just got to the section in ES&L where she includes italics as punctuation, a concept I’d never given any thought before.
I wonder what that says about an italicised semicolon?
Posted 26 Jan 2010 at 5:35 am ¶Italicized punctuation? Sounds a little flat to me. Puncture.
Posted 26 Jan 2010 at 6:07 am ¶Well, in nature, you’d only find it when the surrounding text was italicised, and the semicolon was simply caught in the same net.
For example, a test:
Bernd has an opinion; Joel finds it thought-provoking.
And there, midsentence, should be an italicised semicolon.
Posted 26 Jan 2010 at 6:19 am ¶Post a Comment