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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Why Don't We?

From the completely random file:

Why on earth does English not have a symbol that adequately describes strong amazement?

I've just noticed my over dependence upon make-do symbols, like:
  • ?!?
  • ?! and
  • !?
{Selection of make-do symbol depends on strength of emotion and whether I'm more vehement or befuddled.}

Ideas, anyone? How do we get a symbol introduced into our language that conveys what we need it to convey? (Or is that ?!!?)
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4 comments:

  1. Bob AJanuary 17, 2012 at 6:49 AM

    Actually, there is. It was introduced years ago (I remember it from at least when I was a teenager — Wikipedia says it was introduced in 1962) and is called an interrobang (Unicode U+203D). It's a combination of a question mark and exclamation point (‽). It's included in several font sets. If it showed up, the one in parentheses is from Arial Unicode.

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  2. Bob AJanuary 17, 2012 at 6:54 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Bob AJanuary 17, 2012 at 6:55 AM

    On my screen, at least, it showed up‽ So, Bob's your uncle!! (Not me, of course — a British exclamation meaning, "There you have it." Sort of like the French, voilà!)

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  4. ShannahJanuary 17, 2012 at 8:03 AM

    Who knew‽

    Though I think some time and energy could be expended in developing a more elegant symbol, don't you think? (?!)

    :)

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