I’ve been ordered to hold another punctuation lesson on my blog so today, children, we will be learning about the Irony Punctuation that never quite caught on.
A percontation point, also known as an ironicon (which sounds funny), is not a standardly accepted punctuation point but is one of the oldest and frequently attested methods in which to denote irony or sarcasm. Personally, I like to use a tilde (~) to show my sarcasm (and a singing tone) but that’s just me.
Originally invented by Henry Denham in the 1580s – I think he must have been a very hard man to understand if he used that much sarcasm and irony that he required a special punctuation mark to make sense of his writings – but its use died out in the 17th century. It was furthered by Alcanter do Brehm in the 19th century. The mark is represented by a backwards question mark.
⸮
If you only see a box that’s okay because that’s all I see as well. Clearly it didn’t catch on as much as they’d like it to, here’s a picture:
It’s basically used to indicate that the sentence you’re reading isn’t saying what you think it’s saying.
A bracketed exclamation or question mark are also sometimes used to show irony or sarcasm but the ironicon has never been used widely and only every sometimes appears in obscure artistic or literary publications.
Some examples:
· Elizabeth isn’t a racist⸮
· I never procrastinate⸮
· Philip isn’t going to fail French⸮
· I love to revise for exams, in fact I’ve been revising all weekend! ⸮
Okay class, now it’s your turn! Show me some ironic/sarcastic sentences with appropriate usage of an ironicon.
