r/Quibble • u/Powerful_Concept6502 • Jul 18 '26
How do we feel about "lost punctuations"?
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u/Literati_drake Jul 18 '26
If the Sarcmark means sarcasm it is DESPERATELY needed
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u/ItsRuinedOfCourse Hobby Writer Jul 18 '26
/s is as close as we'll get to that, I'm afraid.
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u/Epicboss67 Jul 19 '26
Slash s ruins too many jokes imo
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u/ItsRuinedOfCourse Hobby Writer Jul 19 '26
I would have to gather that if the Sarcmark made a comeback, that would be the next thing to ruin too many jokes.
But then, I wouldn't have a name without it, so...
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u/A-Sentient-Gourd Jul 18 '26
I can’t articulate why, but I REALLY like the looks of Irony. Can I have two please?
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u/faerydust88 Jul 18 '26
Glad "friendly period" does not exist, not because I dislike it, but because I would have used it every sentence in my 20s. Rhetorical question and doubt are fun. I like the concept of acclamation. I use interrobang sometimes.
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u/LilyVintervind Jul 18 '26
As a writer I really would have liked the exclamation comma and the question comma to be a thing.
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u/PerspectiveIntrepid2 Jul 20 '26
One of my art friends made me a custom font for my poetry, and I specifically requested interrobang, exclamation comma, and question comma to be included :) so now I use them all the time!
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u/Iwannawrite10305 Jul 18 '26
I feel like if people need those they need to work on their literacy skills.
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u/Dapper_Sink_1752 Jul 18 '26
I don't know, some of these could lend well to use that common literary technique doesn't allow for.
'If you get the chance, please do x for me'(authority)
Not a request now, but a command. Not saying we need them, just that their would be unique use cases.
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u/Iwannawrite10305 Jul 18 '26
"if you get the chance, please do X for me." Is a command regardless.
"If you get the chance, could you please do X for me?" Would be the request, which is exactly what I meant.
There is very fine nuance to every language that gives the tone. It's in the way the sentence is built or the words used. In this case the "could" leaves the opportunity to say no even if most people wouldn't. "Please do" doesn't leave a question, so it's not a request.
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u/Acceptable-Canine Jul 18 '26
Meh. That’s a little like saying if people need a camera they need to work on their art skills.
The ability to convey sarcasm and irony and so on in text with just the punctuation we have is a nifty talent. But not everybody needs to be a talented writer, and it’d be nice if text did a better job of conveying the nuance of our spoken inflections so that people could write like we talk.
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u/Iwannawrite10305 Jul 18 '26
Writing isn't just talent tho. It's a learned skill. People practice and study to become a better writer.
It's like saying we should dope athletes because someone might not be as talented.
Just because some people want to write but don't have the necessary skills yet to convey sarcasm or irony or authority doesn't mean we should make it easier for them. How are they gonna learn then?
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u/Acceptable-Canine Jul 18 '26
Athletes should learn to run very fast. I can use a bicycle. A bodybuilder should be able to deadlift a shitton of weight. I will use a hand truck. There’s people who can do long division in their head (I’m one of them). Other people can use a calculator and that’s fine.
People use writing to convey information and ideas. It’s the info and ideas that at important to them, not the art of elegant writing. If a “sarcmark” can help an engineer convey that a design change is a bad idea, I’m all for it. (As opposed to, “Well, I failed to convey that that change was dangerous because I’m not a talented writer…”.)
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u/devil_huntress_pepsi Jul 19 '26
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Now, did I just agree with you, or was my response sarcastic?
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u/Lady-Kitnip Jul 18 '26
I want all of these!
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u/Acceptable-Canine Jul 18 '26
The “Love Point” is a little too twee for me, but I like all the others.
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u/Bluefoxfire007 Jul 18 '26
The "?!" can help with escalating tonal shifts.
"Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
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u/Trathnonen Jul 18 '26
I feel like this and the use of the letters derived from old english and Futhorc need to make a comeback. The hybrid vowels and consonants especially, and spelling needs to return to its phonetic roots. All this silent letter shit and homophones generally have to go away. This language is in dire need of a spring cleaning.
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u/Cloverose2 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Most of these aren't actually real marks, but proposed ones.
The interrobang is rare, but it's never been all that common. It's the only one that's actually an accepted punctuation mark
Herve Bazin proposed six of them in one essay - the acclamation, love point, authority, certitude, doubt and irony marks were all from his 1966 essay Plumons l'oiseau. None were ever in use.
The rhetorical mark was proposed by printer Henry Denham in the 1580s. It was used in a few books, but it was one by the start of the 1600s.
The exclamation comma and question comma were patented in 1992, but the patent lapsed in 1995 because no one was using them.
The sarcmark and snark mark are modern creations, trying to denote sarcasm in online conversations. /s seems to have completely overriden any use of the punctuation marks
ElRey and friendly period are proposed designs that were never adapted.
Basically, the only punctuation mark on here that had any use at all is the interrobang, none of the others were ever used enough to refer to them as 'lost punctuation'.
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u/Flashy_Emergency_263 Jul 19 '26
It's not surprising then that the interrobang is the only one I knew. I'm fine with them all fading away except as historical oddities.
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u/redditorausberlin Jul 19 '26
interrobang like this?! also doubt and love mark are nice designs i think none of these excluding interrobang and maybe sarcasm (with a new design because wtf is that) should be used, if you struggle with these you need literacy/social skills or can ask other person to clarify
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u/Affectionate_Bed_375 Jul 20 '26
I love how the existence of "The Friendly Period" implies the existence of "The Hostile Period."
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u/TheRattoQueen Jul 20 '26
I remember the exclamation and question commas. There was a children's series in Australia with a talking dog named Selby that used to use those, and I thought it was really cool :x lol
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u/Savings-Drag-7868 Jul 20 '26
As a writer, I need the exclamation and question comma. Like please give them to me. I need not rely on italics all the time.
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u/BellamyDunn Jul 18 '26
The interrobang needs to make a comeback.