Wacky Punctuation

Lots of punctuation marks are controversial, but these are some of the strangest and most obscure punctuation marks of all time! Many of these marks are not supported in the font we are using, Lato, so they appear as they do in the Arial font.

First up is the interrobang, which looks like this: ‽ The interrobang is used to end a particularly forceful question. You may have seen authors end questions with a question mark followed by an exclamation point, which achieves the same effect (?!). In theory, combining the two punctuation marks into one makes a lot of sense, but the interrobang never really caught on.

Next, we have the asterism: ⁂ The asterism resembles three asterisks placed in a triangular pattern. This punctuation mark was once used to divide different segments of writing. Today, we often use three asterisks in a row rather than an asterism: * * * The word "asterism" can also refer to a group or pattern of stars which is not technically a constellation. One example of an asterism is the Big Dipper.

A mark that has a similar use to that of the asterism is the hedera, which looks like this: ❧ The hedera is another punctuation mark which divides writing into parts. There are many marks serving this purpose which, like the hedera, resemble plants or flowers. These are called fleurons.

Irony is a concept as old as our language itself, and several attempts to introduce an "irony mark" or "sarcasm mark" into the English language have occurred throughout the ages. Some have proposed using inverted versions of existing punctuation marks, like question marks (⸮, also called the percontation point or the rhetorical question mark) or exclamation points (¡) to convey irony. Other, more radical thinkers have given us such gems as these, which we had to insert as images because we couldn't find versions of these characters that could be copied and pasted.

Pretty wacky, huh⸮

Now, these are just a few of the many strange punctuation marks out there. If these exotic marks interest you, don't stop here! Keep researching and discover new punctuation marks... or maybe even invent your own!