Monday, June 21, 2004

Quartercolon making its marks

"The International Grammar Standards Organization has approved the quartercolon for use starting in June of 2004. This is the first new punctuation mark added to the English language since IGSO approved the exclamation mark in 1914."

http://bbspot.com/News/2004/05/quartercolon.html

A colon looks like two periods over each other. A semicolon looks like a period over a comma. The quartercolon looks like two commas over each other.  See the link above for proper usage hints.

Personally, I think it's a sign that some keyboard manufacturer hired a marketing guy who used to work at Hallmark. Just as those fake holidays (Divorced Grandparents Day?) spur greeting card sales, a new punctuation mark every 5 years or so could spur keyboard sales.

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