The Origins and Weird History of Punctuation Marks

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This chapter dives into the fascinating history of punctuation marks, from their initial rejection by educated speakers to their integration into written language through the printing press. It discusses strange facts like the invention order of question marks and exclamation points, as well as their inclusion in classic texts and the challenges they pose in modern communication.

On this episode we learn about the history of the exclamation point, the question mark, and the semicolon (among many other aspects of language) with Florence Hazrat, a scholar of punctuation, who, to my great surprise, informed me that while a lot of language is the result of a slow evolution, a gradual ever-changing process, punctuation in the English language is often an exception to this – for instance, a single person invented the semicolon; they woke up and the semicolon didn’t exist, and then went to bed that night, and it did!

Florence Hazrat's Website

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