5 ms·

The secret life of punctuation - ¶ (The Pilcrow)

148 points by dogonwheels 16y ago

haribilalic 16y ago
It's too bad that it's in multiple parts and the other part(s?) aren't available! It's a surprisingly well written and researched article. I'm looking forward to more entries.
dot 16y ago
Fantastic name for a blog about typographical marks.
psykotic 16y ago
Wonderful writing! He should collect these essays into book form to counterbalance the influence of pseudo-erudite pedants like Lynne Truss.
ShadyCharacters 16y ago
Thanks for the positive comments! There are two more articles on the pilcrow coming soon, and after that I'm moving on to the interrobang. I hope the new entries live up to the first one!
- kolektiv 16y ago
  I'll echo the other positives - very interesting and enjoyable read, looking forward to the next parts. If there was enough for a book at any point, I can think of several friends that would also enjoy it.
- carlygeehr 16y ago
  Cheers for a brilliantly composed article! Looking forward to the interrobang - I'd never heard of it until the Oatmeal gave it a shout-out recently. Don't worry about the articles "liv[ing] up to the first one" - you're obviously thorough and articulate, so I wouldn't say you have too much to fret about!
lusis 16y ago
Wow. That was an amazing post. Having a penchant for ancient greek due to misplaced enthusiasm for seminary, I was seriously enthralled. I didn't realize I might have a latent typography fetish.
tjmaxal 16y ago
Tease! You started out by saying you would get to the name and shape of the Pilcrow in this article, but you never quite got there. Oh well I guess I will have to wait for part II.
- DanielBMarkham 16y ago
  Thanks for saying that. I loved the style of the piece, the flow of the writing, the look of the page. He just never got to the dang point! Perhaps this is all part of an elaborate plot to keep us interested. I hope so. Looking forward to more work from this author.
  - ajarmoniuk 16y ago
    I guess he was heading in the right direction - as the Pilcrow is clearly what Kaput et al was for.
JacobAldridge 16y ago
Now I know why Homer's writing is so awesome - The Iliad and The Odyssey weren't just written to be read aloud, they were written TO BE FREAKIN' SHOUTED.
Jun8 16y ago
Excellent article! The technical details and references are impeccable and your example images are great. While talking about Dionysius Thrax you might add that the term obelisk as an editorial mark (used to denote parts of the text that were deemed to be added later) is mentioned in the scholia of this work, while discussing the legend of Peisistratus. OK, I can't resist, I'll paste an excerpt myself: "At some time the poiemata of Homer were destroyed, either by fire or by earthquake [...] But Peisistratus, the strategos of Athens, wishing to acquire for himself a reputation and to revive the works of Homer, devised this course of action. He announced throughout the whole of Greece that anyone in possession of Homeric lines should bring them to him for a fixed premium per single line. [...] and after gathering together all the lines, they summoned 72 experts (grammatikoi) to assemble the works of Homer, each one in private, in whatever manner he might consider the assemblage would be best. He [Peisistratus] summoned them for a premium that was fitting for intellectual men and kritai poiemata, and to each was given all the lines in isolation, as many as had been gathered together." This, AFAIK, is the first mention of editors/scholars performing style analysis for authorship determination.
StavrosK 16y ago
I always find it surprising how little the Greek language has changed. As a modern Greek, I can easily understand the text from the Codex Sinaiticus image (apart from the damn wordsbeingwrittenlikethis)...
- RocketCart 16y ago
  That's partially attributable to the legacy of Katharevousa, which was basically Ancient Greek with simplified grammare. During the two centuries of Katharevousa's official use, a LOT of heavily Ancient Greek-inspired vocabulary migrated in to the vernacular.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
crux 16y ago
I like the pilcrow so much, I've got a big ol' pilcrow tattoo on my arm.
- cristoperb 16y ago
  Do you have any photos you can link to?
  - crux 16y ago
    Here's one I took for another purpose, a couple days ago: http://i.imgur.com/I3478.jpg http://i.imgur.com/I3478.jpg
ajarmoniuk 16y ago
Thanks for the article. Too bad there's no such finds on Reddit anymore.
nitrogen 16y ago
Firefox 3.6.13 on Ubuntu massacres the typography (at least with my DPI/hinting/smoothing settings). The lowercase letters are not uniform in height. Chrome looks much better.
squeed 16y ago
Slick article, and really dope wordpress theme. Anyone have the source?

148 points by dogonwheels 16y ago

It's too bad that it's in multiple parts and the other part(s?) aren't available! It's a surprisingly well written and researched article. I'm looking forward to more entries.

dot 16y ago

Fantastic name for a blog about typographical marks.

psykotic 16y ago

Wonderful writing! He should collect these essays into book form to counterbalance the influence of pseudo-erudite pedants like Lynne Truss.

ShadyCharacters 16y ago

Thanks for the positive comments! There are two more articles on the pilcrow coming soon, and after that I'm moving on to the interrobang. I hope the new entries live up to the first one!

kolektiv 16y ago
I'll echo the other positives - very interesting and enjoyable read, looking forward to the next parts. If there was enough for a book at any point, I can think of several friends that would also enjoy it.
carlygeehr 16y ago
Cheers for a brilliantly composed article! Looking forward to the interrobang - I'd never heard of it until the Oatmeal gave it a shout-out recently. Don't worry about the articles "liv[ing] up to the first one" - you're obviously thorough and articulate, so I wouldn't say you have too much to fret about!

lusis 16y ago

Wow. That was an amazing post. Having a penchant for ancient greek due to misplaced enthusiasm for seminary, I was seriously enthralled. I didn't realize I might have a latent typography fetish.

tjmaxal 16y ago

Tease! You started out by saying you would get to the name and shape of the Pilcrow in this article, but you never quite got there. Oh well I guess I will have to wait for part II.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago
Thanks for saying that. I loved the style of the piece, the flow of the writing, the look of the page. He just never got to the dang point! Perhaps this is all part of an elaborate plot to keep us interested. I hope so. Looking forward to more work from this author.
- ajarmoniuk 16y ago
  I guess he was heading in the right direction - as the Pilcrow is clearly what Kaput et al was for.

JacobAldridge 16y ago

Now I know why Homer's writing is so awesome - The Iliad and The Odyssey weren't just written to be read aloud, they were written TO BE FREAKIN' SHOUTED.

Jun8 16y ago

Excellent article! The technical details and references are impeccable and your example images are great. While talking about Dionysius Thrax you might add that the term obelisk as an editorial mark (used to denote parts of the text that were deemed to be added later) is mentioned in the scholia of this work, while discussing the legend of Peisistratus. OK, I can't resist, I'll paste an excerpt myself: "At some time the poiemata of Homer were destroyed, either by fire or by earthquake [...] But Peisistratus, the strategos of Athens, wishing to acquire for himself a reputation and to revive the works of Homer, devised this course of action. He announced throughout the whole of Greece that anyone in possession of Homeric lines should bring them to him for a fixed premium per single line. [...] and after gathering together all the lines, they summoned 72 experts (grammatikoi) to assemble the works of Homer, each one in private, in whatever manner he might consider the assemblage would be best. He [Peisistratus] summoned them for a premium that was fitting for intellectual men and kritai poiemata, and to each was given all the lines in isolation, as many as had been gathered together." This, AFAIK, is the first mention of editors/scholars performing style analysis for authorship determination.

StavrosK 16y ago

I always find it surprising how little the Greek language has changed. As a modern Greek, I can easily understand the text from the Codex Sinaiticus image (apart from the damn wordsbeingwrittenlikethis)...

RocketCart 16y ago
That's partially attributable to the legacy of Katharevousa, which was basically Ancient Greek with simplified grammare. During the two centuries of Katharevousa's official use, a LOT of heavily Ancient Greek-inspired vocabulary migrated in to the vernacular.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

crux 16y ago

I like the pilcrow so much, I've got a big ol' pilcrow tattoo on my arm.

cristoperb 16y ago
Do you have any photos you can link to?
- crux 16y ago
  Here's one I took for another purpose, a couple days ago: http://i.imgur.com/I3478.jpg http://i.imgur.com/I3478.jpg

ajarmoniuk 16y ago

Thanks for the article. Too bad there's no such finds on Reddit anymore.

nitrogen 16y ago

Firefox 3.6.13 on Ubuntu massacres the typography (at least with my DPI/hinting/smoothing settings). The lowercase letters are not uniform in height. Chrome looks much better.

squeed 16y ago

Slick article, and really dope wordpress theme. Anyone have the source?