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Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

From:Grandsire, C.A. <grandsir@...>
Date:Monday, December 6, 1999, 9:34
John Cowan wrote:
> > "Grandsire, C.A." wrote: > > > Chasma"o"cho is an exception, but here I use the semi-colon as an > > interrogative mark, > > Is that influence from Greek? >
Yes, and admittedly so :) . In fact, this punctuation mark is at the confluence of several influences: - Greek for the form (a semi-colon for a question mark). - Spanish for the use (two semi-colons surrounding an interrogative expression). - French for the spacing (two mandatory spaces, one before and one after the mark, even if it is followed by another punctuation mark). - and a last particular behaviour being that, like quotes, it's not a marker of the end of a sentence, so a marker must be added at the end of the sentence. The exclamative mark (the colon :) ) works exactly the same way. -- Christophe Grandsire Philips Research Laboratories -- Building WB 145 Prof. Holstlaan 4 5656 AA Eindhoven The Netherlands Phone: +31-40-27-45006 E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com