Interrobang

The Interrobang ( ‽ ) ( English pronunciation [ ɪntɛɻəbæŋ ] ), colloquially known as the interrobang, is a rare, not used in the German non-standard punctuation. It combines the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point. Typography, the two characters are superimposed.

Application

An Interrobang at the end of a question is to show that it is made emphatically ( emphasis ):

• How much did you pay for those shoes ‽
• You go with Marie ‽
• You traveled in a submarine to Paris ‽
• What have I just eaten ‽

History

Especially in informal texts ( in particular advertising and comics ), two or more punctuation marks used in succession decades before the invention of the Interrobang at the end of a sentence expressing surprise and question at the same time:

The question mark stands mostly in the first place, to emphasize the question of the character set, but there is no general rule for this. Sometimes even several question and exclamation marks are used in succession.

Martin K. Speckter, head of a U.S. advertising agency, invented the Interrobang 1962. He believed that advertisements would look better if the copywriter could convey a surprising question with a single character. He pitched his concept to an article in the journal type talks and urged readers to propose a name for the new character. Speckter finally opted for Interrobang. This name refers to the two combined punctuation: interrogatio the Latin word for question, bang is one among English printers used informal word for the exclamation mark. The reader of the article also provided suggestions for the graphic design of the new character.

In 1966, Richard Isbell published by the American Type Founders Americana font, in which he included the Interrobang. From 1968, some Remington typewriters possessed a corresponding key. The Interrobang was mainly in the 70's into fashion. The word was included in dictionaries and uses that sign in magazines and newspaper articles.

The Interrobang never came, however, beyond a fad. Although most fonts do not offer the Interrobang, it has not disappeared.

Representation in computer

The Interrobang was recorded on code position U 203 D in Unicode and is available in the writings of, among others, Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS or Linux Libertine. In HTML it can with the code ‽ ‽ or be inserted.

With LaTeX the Interrobang can be used from the tc fonts with the package textcomp; the associated command is \ textinterrobang. Also the Gnaborretni, a upside-down Interrobang is textinterrobangdown available under the \ command.

In the Neo keyboard layout, it may by Compose, 1 (also from the numeric keypad ) followed by? and! be produced in any order. For the Gnaborretni the last two keys to navigate through ¿ and ¡ be replaced.

Under Microsoft Windows, you can represent the Interrobang by the Old Code Alt 8253, where the character is included in the character set. On Linux systems with newer versions of X11, the characters can be carried Compose ? Enter. In GTK - or Qt -based applications, it may also by pressing Ctrl Shift U, 203d and then pressing spacebar or Enter are generated.

Miscellaneous

• When communicating via the Internet is the result? used in a similar sense, since the placement of content usually serves only the text that shows the combination of characters the content of a previous statement will be logically understood but asked rhetorically in question.
• The Interrobang represents in Michael Gerber's Harry Potter parodies Barry Trotter scar
• A reverse Interrobang ( ⸘, U 2 E18 ) is called Gnaborretni ( ananym of " Interrobang " ) and used at the beginning of Spanish, Asturian and Galician sentences. The inclusion in Unicode has been proposed on 1 April 2005 and now accepted.
• An Italian film titled Interrabang 1969 rotated.
• In chess notation called? an interesting, but not necessarily the best and train? a dubious train, which is, however, difficult to refute.
• The U.S. organization Partnership for a Drug - Free America used a Interrobang in the logo.