Crazy Punctuation II 'Guillemets'. (Not 'The Guillemots')

Guillemet
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Guillemets (pronounced /ˈɡɪləmɛt/, or /ɡiːəˈmeɪ/ after French [ɡijmɛ]), also called angle quotes, are line segments, pointed as if arrows (« or »), sometimes forming a complementary set of punctuation marks used as a form of quotation mark.

The symbol at either end – double « and » or single ‹ and › – is a guillemet. They are used in a number of languages to indicate speech. They resemble (but are not the same as) the symbols for lesser than, greater than (for the single <), and for left and right bit shifts in some programming languages,[1][2] as well as rewind and fast forward on various media players, such as home VCR and DVD players or handheld MP3 players. Contents [hide] 1 Etymology 2 Uses 2.1 Direction 3 Guillemets in computing 3.1 Programming Languages 3.2 Typing "«" and "»" on computers 3.3 Unicode 3.4 UML 3.5 Mail merge 3.6 Guillemet vs. guillemot 4 See also 5 References [edit] Etymology The word is a diminutive of the French name Guillaume (the equivalent of which in English is William), after the French printer and punchcutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598).[3][4] Some languages derive their word for guillemets analogously; for example, the Irish term is Liamóg, from Liam 'William' and a diminutive suffix. [edit] Uses Main article: Quotation mark, non-English usage Used pointing outwards («like this») to indicate speech in these languages and regions: Albanian Arabic Armenian Belarusian Breton Bulgarian (rarely used, „...“ is official, but "..." prevails) Catalan Chinese (《 and 》 are used to indicate a book or album title) Estonian Franco-Provençal French (separated by non-breaking spaces « like this », except in Switzerland) Galician Greek Italian North Korean (in South Korea " is used) Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Persian Polish usually to indicate a quote inside a quote Portuguese (European; now largely replaced by quotation marks) Romanian, only to indicate a quotation within a quotation Russian, and some languages of the former Soviet Union using Cyrillic script Spanish (although their use is uncommon outside Spain) Swiss languages Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese Used pointing inwards (»like this«) to indicate speech in these languages: Croatian (rarely used, „...“ is official, but "..." prevails) Czech (marked usage, „...“ prevails) Danish („...“ is also used) German (Except in Switzerland. „...“ is also used) Hungarian (only as a secondary quote, inside a section already marked by the usual quotes) Serbian (marked usage, „...“ prevails) Slovak (marked usage, „...“ prevails) Slovene Swedish (rarely used; "..." prevails) Used pointing right (»like this») to indicate speech in these languages: Finnish [edit] Direction A guillemet is sometimes used to indicate direction, for example: fast forward button on a media player, or fast rewind indicated by the complementary guillemet a chevron on road signage to show road direction, or multiple chevrons pointing in the same direction for emphasis as an alternative to an ellipsis in a document, for example to indicate additional content. The guillemet is balanced in the spine height of the line for most fonts, so it is more visible than an ellipsis. [edit] Guillemets in computing [edit] Programming Languages The Perl 6 programming language uses « » and < > to combine quoting and subscripting. %table has the same meaning as %table{'name'}, and %table«name» has the same meaning as %table{"name"}.

In the RPL programming language, guillemets are used to demarcate the beginning and end of a program block.
[edit] Typing "«" and "»" on computers

Windows users can create the guillemet "«" by holding Alt + 0171 or Alt + 7598 or Alt + 686 and "»" by holding Alt + 0187 or Alt + 7599 or Alt + 687. With a US International Keyboard Alt Gr + [ and Alt Gr + ] can also be used. The characters are standard on French Canadian keyboards and some others.

Macintosh users can type "«" as Option-Backslash and "»" as Option-Shift-Backslash. (This applies to all English-language keyboard layouts supplied with the operating system, e.g. "Australian", "British", "Canadian", "Irish", "Irish Extended", "U.S." and "U.S. Extended". Other language layouts may differ.)

For users of Unix-like operating systems running the X Window System, creation of the guillemet depends on a number of factors including the keyboard layout that is in effect. For example, with US International Keyboard layout selected a user would type Alt Gr + [ for "«" and Alt Gr + "]" for "»". On some configurations they can be written by typing "«" as Alt Gr + z and "»" as Alt Gr + x. With the compose key, press Compose + < + < and Compose + > + >. Additionally with the ibus input method framework enabled, users may enter these characters into those applications that accept it by using Ctrl + Shift + U followed by their unicode codepoints: either AB or BB, respectively.

On computers, operating systems, or keyboards without support for guillemets, these characters are sometimes produced with double inequality characters (<< or >>) or double chevrons (〈〈 or 〉〉).
[edit] Unicode

In Unicode, the characters are encoded at U+00AB «​ left-pointing double angle quotation mark (HTML: « «) and at U+00BB »​ right-pointing double angle quotation mark (HTML: » »). Despite their names, the characters are mirrored when used in right-to-left contexts.
[edit] UML

Guillemets are used in Unified Modeling Language to indicate a stereotype of a standard element.
[edit] Mail merge

Microsoft Word uses guillemets when creating mail merges. Microsoft use these punctuation marks to denote a mail merge "field", such as «Title», «AddressBlock» or «GreetingLine». Then on the final printout, the guillemet-marked tags are replaced by the corresponding data outlined for that field by the user.
[edit] Guillemet vs. guillemot

In Adobe Systems font software, its file format specifications, and in all fonts derived from these that contain the characters, the word is incorrectly spelled ‘guillemot’ (a malapropism: guillemot is actually a species of seabird) in the names of the two glyphs: guillemotleft and guillemotright. Adobe acknowledges the error.[5]

Likewise, X11 mistakenly calls them ‘XK_guillemotleft’ and ‘XK_guillemotright’ in the file keysymdef.h.

Crazy Punctuation part 1 ‽

Interrobang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The interrobang, interabang^[1] ( /ɪnˈtɛrəbæŋ/), ‽ / ?! / !?, is a nonstandard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the “interrogative point”) and the exclamation mark or exclamation point (known in printers’ jargon as the “bang”). The glyph is a superimposition of these two marks. The Unicode code point is U+203D.

Contents [hide] 1 Application 2 As a logo 3 History 3.1 Invention 4 Entering and display 5 Inverted interrobang 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Application

A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question.

For example:

• How much did you pay for those shoes‽
• You're going out with whom‽

Use of an interrobang may be considered somewhat redundant, considering the same effect is captured in standard English by ending a sentence with first a question mark and then an exclamation mark.

[edit] As a logo

The State Library of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia, uses an interrobang as its logo.

[edit] History

An interrobang in the Palatino Linotype font

Many writers, especially in informal writing, have used multiple punctuation marks to end a sentence expressing surprise and question.

What the...?! Neves, Called Dead in Fall, Denies It (headline from San Francisco Examiner, May 9, 1936)

The question mark frequently comes first (to emphasize that it is a question), although there is no universal style rule on the subject.

It is not uncommon for writers in very informal situations to use several question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis:

He did what?!?!?!

Like multiple exclamation marks and multiple question marks, such strings are generally considered poor style in formal writing.^[2]

Writers had combined question marks and exclamation marks (along with using multiple punctuation marks) for decades before the invention of the interrobang. They were prevalent in informal media such as print advertisements and comic books.^{[citation needed]} They are also currently used in algebraic chess notation with "!?" showing an interesting move that may not be the best, and "?!" showing a dubious move that may be difficult to justify.

[edit] Invention

American Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang in 1962. As the head of an advertising agency, Speckter believed that advertisements would look better if copywriters conveyed surprised rhetorical questions using a single mark. He proposed the concept of a single punctuation mark in an article in the magazine TYPEtalks. Speckter solicited possible names for the new character from readers. Contenders included rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest, but he settled on interrobang. He chose the name to reference the punctuation marks that inspired it: interrogatio is Latin for "a rhetorical question" or "cross-examination";^[3] bang is printers' slang for the exclamation mark. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.^[4]

In 1966, Richard Isbell of American Type Founders issued the Americana typeface and included the interrobang as one of the characters. In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. During the 1970s, it was possible to buy replacement interrobang keycaps and typefaces for some Smith-Corona typewriters.^[5] The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s, with the word interrobang appearing in some dictionaries and the mark itself being featured in magazine and newspaper articles.^[4]

The interrobang failed to amount to much more than a fad, however. It has not become a standard punctuation mark. Although most fonts do not include the interrobang, it has not disappeared: Microsoft provides several versions of the interrobang character as part of the Wingdings 2 character set (on the right bracket and tilde keys) available with Microsoft Office.^[6] It was accepted into Unicode^[7] and is present in several fonts, including Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, and Calibri, the default font in the Office 2007 suite.^[8]

The French equivalent is point exclarrogatif, expressing a similar idea—the fusion between point d’interrogation (?) and “point d’exclamation” (!).

[edit] Entering and display

The interrobang is not a standard punctuation mark. Few modern typefaces or fonts include a glyph for the interrobang character. It is at Unicode code point U+203D ‽​ interrobang (8253_decimal, HTML: &#8253;).

The interrobang can be used in some word processors with the alt code ALT+8253 when working in a font that supports the interrobang, or using an operating system that performs font substitution.

Depending on the browser and which fonts the user has installed, some of these may or may not be displayed or may be substituted with a different font.

Image	Default font	Fixed	Palatino Linotype	Calibri	Arial Unicode MS	Code2000	Helvetica	Unicode*
	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽
*The Unicode column uses one of a selection of wide coverage Unicode fonts depending on what is installed on your system

On a Linux system supporting the Compose Key, an interrobang can be produced by pressing the compose key followed by the question mark and the exclamation mark in either order.

The interrobang can be displayed in LaTeX by using the package textcomp and the command \textinterrobang. The inverted interrobang is also provided for in the textcomp package through the command \textinterrobangdown.

[edit] Inverted interrobang

A reverse and upside down interrobang (combining ¿ and ¡, Unicode character: ⸘), suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Galician and Asturian is called by some a gnaborretni (interrobang backwards).^[9] Unicode encodes this character at the code point U+2E18 ⸘​ inverted interrobang (11800_decimal, HTML: &#11800;).^[10] In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is usually achieved by including both sets of punctuation marks one inside the other (¿¡Verdad!? or ¡¿Verdad?! [Really!?/?!]).^[11] Older usage, still official but not widespread, recommended mixing the punctuation marks: ¡Verdad? or ¿Verdad!^[12]