Punked by the Pomma Point--and Other Odd Marks of Punctuation
While some folks are committed to eliminating certain marks of punctuation (see the Campaign to Abolish the Apostrophe), others are busily promoting brand new ones. Here are three points to ponder--though I wouldn't advise buying stock in any of them.
The Interrobang (aka The Interabang)
The most serious contender for a spot on our keyboards is (or was) the interrobang, which appears in both the Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage dictionaries: "A punctuation mark in the form of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point, used to end a simultaneous question and exclamation."
Though editor Martin K. Speckter is generally credited with the mark's invention in 1962 (its name was suggested by a reader of Speckter's magazine, TYPEtalks), a version of the interrobang had already been used for decades in the speech balloons of comic strips. A 1960s fad, the interrobang lasted just about as long as love beads and bell-bottoms--though I'm told it can still be found at Unicode code point U+203D.
The Sarcasm Point
A few years back, humorist Josh Greenman proposed a new punctuation mark that "embraces the irony and edge of contemporary conversation." Designed, we imagine, for readers who suffer from irony deficiency, the sarcasm point (an inverted exclamation mark) was intended to distinguish straight talking from wisecracking.
Why the sarcasm point? We have a mark that conveys that we mean or know something. We have one that says it with volume and force! We have one that communicates that we don't know something, don't we? We need one more: to do for language what shade did for drawing, what color did for television, and what eyebrows did for expressions—introduce finesse.All we can say to that is, thanks a lot, Josh.
("A Giant Step Forward for Punctuation," Slate, Dec. 21, 2004)
The Pomma Point (aka We've Been Punked)
The most recent contender in the new-punctuation contest was dreamed up for something called "a viral marketing experiment." This past May, a gang of Canadian marketers invented the Pomma Point ("half way between the period and the exclamation point"), threw up a website, posted a video to Facebook and YouTube, and then reached out to any "punctuation, grammar and language websites, blogs, discussion boards and institutions where the idea could be posted."
Within days, the pomma point (picture an exclamation point flat on its back) appeared as a news item at several of our favorite language sites. Oddly enough, nobody seemed to get the point that it was nothing more than an exercise in self-promotion.
In the May 17th entry at globeandmail.com, Mark Healy reported on his group's achievements: "In very short order (less than a week), we are learning a ton about viral marketing, buzz marketing, word of mouth marketing (WOMM), the intricacies of marketing via social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube, and effective and ineffective marketing metrics and tracking."
What's the purpose of the pomma point? Who cares?! What concerns us now is the menace called "viral marketing." Follow that with an interrobang.
A Final Point
Viral marketing aside, do you think that the addition of a fresh mark of punctuation (select from the above or create your own) might help to clarify our prose and improve human communication? Or do we already have our hands full trying to keep straight the more familiar points? Hit "comments" (below) and leave your mark.
More About Punctuation:
Comments
The most annoying punctuation for me are the “air quotes”. They are the body language equivalent of valley-girl-talk
I like the sarcasm point a bit but am afraid it will be overused just as the exclamation point is.
I think one of the virtues of written english is its sparse use of diacrits and non alphabetical signs. I would rather keep it simple.
The sarcasm point, alas, is just too late, as it is commonly used in Spanish, to open an exclamation. So, whereas in English one states “great!”, in Spanish one writes “¡Excelente!” And, before anybody gets creative, the same applies to question marks: An inverted one is used to open the question, and the usual one is employed to close it ¿me entiendes?