How the internet could revive a 60-year-old punctuation mark
By S.H.
"YOU did WHAT?!" At times of high excitement, mirth or outrage, a mere question mark may not suffice. Using a question mark in conjunction with an exclamation mark or two can help convey the urgency of a question. But why, in an age when thoughts are limited to 140 characters, should it be necessary to use two punctuation marks where one could do? The answer to this pressing question is the interrobang. The odd-looking squiggle, a question-exclamation hybrid, is more than 50 years old, but has never quite caught on. Could this be its moment? (Could it‽)
The interrobang was invented in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter, a journalist turned advertising executive, who disliked the ugliness of using multiple punctuation marks at the end of a sentence. Mr Speckter said the interrobang could be used in rhetorical questions, contributing “nuance and clarity”. An example he gave, in a nice example of the high technology of the era, was the advertising copy: “What? A Refrigerator That Makes Its Own Ice Cubes?”, which Mr Speckter said would be better with the addition of interrobangs: “What‽ A Refrigerator That Makes Its Own Ice Cubes‽”
To Mr Speckter's disappointment, no-one much used the interrobang, in refrigerator advertisements or anywhere else. But it hasn't quite died out. It is still included in many modern typefaces, including the defaults on both Apple and Microsoft’s operating systems. The version in use today appears to have been designed by Kenneth Wright for the Remington Rand typewriter. Perhaps it was this design that led to the interrobang's lack of adoption: although it unambiguously conveys the meaning of the mark, the symbol is not much to look at.
More than this, the failure of the interrobang may be down to the nature of language itself. Language develops naturally over time, and most attempts to shape it fail. Other examples of failed punctuation inventions include the irony mark and the trademarked “SarcMark”. But the web may offer the interrobang a second chance. Social media demand brevity, which it offers. Other characters, such as ⇒ (implies) or ∃ ("there exists"), are handy ways to save space in a tweet, though, as with the interrobang, there is no easy way to type them. Yet the internet has already revived the careers of previously unloved characters, such as @ and _. Could the interrobang be next‽
