The interrobang

In my quest to write something new every day, sometimes the well runs dry or I don't feel like publicly sharing internal discourse or the daily ramblings of a mad man. In that case, we move to randomness.

One thing I try to do each day is learn something new. I realize that is a simple enough goal, but it's a small task that gives me a minor bit of personal pleasure or amusement.

One area that has interested me is the field of typography - the study of type design and arrangement. There are several typographical characters that tend to pique a greater interest due to either lending themselves to more random use or being lesser known in general.

For example, most people are familiar with the exclamation point - ! (in typography terms, this is called a 'bang'). It is used to convey an exclamation; the stronger emotions of anger, jubilation, or surprise. Also, there is the question mark - ? (in typography terms, this is called an 'interrogative point'). It is used as an interrogative; a query of curiosity.

Most people are not familiar, however, with the interrobang (‽ or ‽). Many modern users often manipulate the classical interrobang usage by using a question mark following an exclamation point (!?) or the converse (?!). This is passable, but technically incorrect. An interrobang is actually the superimposition of the two characters. One character has to be on top or below the other. I was not able to find out details of classical typography to determine if it was more standard to overlay the interrogative point over the bang or the bang over the interrogative point, but I digress.

It is important to note that typographical characters are not constant between locales. Different locales have different way of displaying an exclamation point or question mark. For example, in Greek, a standard latin semi-colon character (;) is used as a question mark. In Arabic, a right-to-left language, the question mark is technically mirrored (؟).

Since more modern typographical input devices, specifically, a computer keyboard, are unable to easily superimpose the two typographical characters, the two characters are placed one after another more commonly. The order of the characters can matter depending on the context. For example, in algebraic chess notation, "?!" would imply a suspect maneuver, whereas "!?" would imply a more interesting maneuver. Some authors use excessive interrobangs or creatively randomized interrobangs to show extreme emphasis of an emotion (!?!??!?!!!!!?!?!?!!!).

It is worth noting the interrobang is not a classical construct. The question mark, for example, is centuries old. The interrobang was not invented until 1962. An advertising salesman, Martin K. Speckter, thought the character would be a good way to convey a rhetorical question. He finally decided on the name interrobang after carefully considering other alternative names - rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest.

Several typographers and authors consider the interrobang a confusing character in literary context. Standard punctuation, such as a period (.), question mark (?), or comma (,) are used to clarify meaning or the flow of thought whereas an interrobang implies unclear meaning.

This was an interesting topic to read on. Or perhaps it is better stated...

This was an interesting topic to read on!?