What's the origin of the question mark

[naita]

What’s the origin of the question mark? An excellent report that answered lots of questions I’d never thought to ask in a clear and concise manner.

I’ve looked up information on some of the punctuation marks on wikipedia previously, and searched the net for something definite on the percentage sign, but this is the first time I’ve read a description of the evolution from continuous to punctuated text, rather than descriptions of the individual stages. Someone should add this to the wikipedia entry.

It does have a typo though

Often readers marked the text for this purpose, mostly with interpuncts and and pause indications.

[Gfactor]

@naita

It does have a typo though

Thanks. We’ll get it fixed.

[Jelymag]

Nice report, good job Gfactor.

[Freezair_SilverEye]

Nice report! I consider myself an English nut, yet I had no idea that punctuation marks as I know them are so relatively recent. But I have to ask: There’s one link in the report that mentions the basic idea of the question mark: “A wavy slanted line over a dot.” It also says “the form took a while to jell.” But, unless my browser is having problems/I’m missing something, it just seems to link to a page on a modern-day question mark. Was this intentional, or am I having technical issues?

[Gfactor]

Look to the left of the modern question mark and you’ll see the old-fashioned one. BTW, welcome to the Dope.

[Gfactor]

This big pdf has some manuscript samples from the Parkes book, some of which show different forms of punctus interrogativus: http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3193.pdf (Figures 22, 25, 39, 40)

[CJJ]

Gfactor’s excellent report makes a point I’d like to comment on:

While major sections of a work were separated by layout features like chapters and paragraphs, text within divisions ran together. First-century Latin texts separated words with dots called interpuncts (·) but apparently the practice died out by the end of the century. After that, the Romans did it like the Greeks – in scripto continua – “without separating the words or indicating any pauses within a major section of the text,” says Parkes.

I’ve always found it interesting that the Latin word legere - “to read” (root of English words like “legible” and “lecture”) can also mean “to pick out” (root of English words like “elect” and “select”). This, I think, is because in Roman times the act of reading required the reader to pick the words out of the scripta continua.

[Gfactor]

@CJJ*

This, I think, is because in Roman times the act of reading required the reader to pick the words out of the scripta continua.

That makes a lot of sense.

[Gfactor]

Here’s a pretty good (not perfect) example from c. 825-50: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/jpegs/imagecat/1500/imac0970.jpg

[Freezair_SilverEye]

Talk about missing the forest for the trees. I thought that was a letter. :smack: