interrobang

The interrobang (/ɪn'tɛrəbæŋ/) (‽) is a rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the question mark (also called the interrogative point) and the exclamation mark (known in printers' jargon as the bang). The typographical character is a superimposition of those two marks. The same effect is also frequently achieved by placing the exclamation point after or before the question mark; e.g., "How could you do such a thing?!"

Application

A sentence ending with an interrobang either (1) asks a question in an excited manner, (2) expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or (3) asks a rhetorical question.

For example:

• How much did you spend on those shoes‽
• You're going out with her‽
• She did what‽

History

Multiple punctuation marks

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. This order has an advantage of being unambiguous in certain circumstances, such as when dealing with numbers or other mathematical terms, the exclamation mark being used in mathematics to refer to a factorial. For example, the sentence "What is 5!?" in mathematics could be interpreted as a question asking the value of the factorial of five.

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 very poor style in formal writing.^[1]

It is important to note that writers had combined question marks and exclamation points (along with using multiple punctuation marks) for decades before the interrobang was invented. In particular, 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 nevertheless be difficult to refute.

The invention of the interrobang

American Martin K. Speckter concocted 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";^[2] bang is printers' slang for the exclamation point. Graphic treatments for the new mark were also submitted in response to the article.^[3]

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 strikers for some Smith-Corona typewriters. 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.^[3]

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 }/] and the ~/` keys) available with Microsoft Office.^[4] It was accepted into Unicode and is present in the fonts Lucida Sans Unicode and Arial Unicode MS, among others.^[5]

The French equivalent is "point exclarrogatif", expressing a similar idea - the fusion between "point d'interrogation" (?) and "point d'exclamation" (!).

The inverted interrobang

A reverse and upside down interrobang (combining ¿ and ¡), suitable for starting phrases in Spanish, Asturian, and Galician, is called by some a gnaborretni (interrobang backwards). Michael Everson proposed it for inclusion in the Unicode standard.^[6] The Unicode Technical Committee and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 have accepted it to be encoded in the standard with the tentative code point of U+2E18 (⸘) but it is not yet formally a part of the standard.^[7] In current practice, interrobang-like emphatic ambiguity in Hispanic languages is achieved by mixing the punctuation marks: ¡Verdad? or ¿Verdad!

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. It can be used in HTML documents with ‽ or ‽, although the second form has poor support in common web browsers. 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.

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.

Depending on the browser and which fonts the user has installed, some of these may be displayed.

Image	Default font	Fixed	Palatino Linotype	Arial Unicode MS	Code2000	Unicode
	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽	‽

In popular culture

• The interrobang is featured in Michael Gerber's Barry Trotter books (parodies of Harry Potter) as Barry's scar.

• An Italian television series called Interbang prominently featured the symbol.

• In Lynne Truss's book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, the interrobang is described as "daft" and featured as a future hit with the current "send" society.^[8]

• The Interrobang is the name of Bennington College's literary magazine.

• The Partnership for a Drug-Free America uses an interrobang for its logo.

• In the comic book Usagi Yojimbo, writer/artist Stan Sakai occasionally uses an interrobang to express a character's surprise and/or bewilderment.

• The web comic Dume ran a comic strip with the "Random Bunch of Guys Team", a squad of absurdly designed super heroes. One was named "Interrobang" and featured one on the front of his uniform, not unlike the letter "S" on Superman's costume. The character spoke in dramatic exclamations that ended with the punctuation mark. [1]

See also

• Irony mark

References

1. ^ Punctuation. Chicago Style Q&A. Chicago Manual of Style Online. (15^th ed.) Accessed August 28, 2007.
2. ^ Burton, Gideon O. interrogatio. Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric. Brigham Young University. Accessed August 28, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b} Haley, Allan. The Interrobang is Back. Font Haus. Accessed August 28, 2007.
4. ^ The INTERROBANG: A twentieth century punctuation mark. Accessed August 28, 2007.
5. ^ MSDN fontblog. Accessed August 28, 2007.
6. ^ Everson, Michael. Proposal to add INVERTED INTERROBANG to the UCS. International Organization for Standardization. Accessed August 28, 2007.
7. ^ Proposed New Characters: Pipeline Table. Unicode. August 23, 2007. Accessed August 28, 2007.
8. ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, 2004. Gotham Books. p.196.

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