What is the origin of the question mark Rather fittingly, the origins of the question mark are clouded in myth and mystery. One of the most appealing stories links the curve of the question mark to the shape of an inquisitive cats tail. This feline connection is either attributed to the ancient Egyptians who were, of course, famed for their worship of cats, or to a monk who took inspiration from his curious pet cat, and included the symbol in his manuscript. A parallel story suggests that the exclamation mark derives from the shape of a surprised cats tail Sadly, like many of the most charming and amusing origin stories, there is no evidence to back up this tale. Another possibility links the question mark with the Latin word quaestio question. Supposedly, in the Middle Ages scholars would write quaestio at the end of a sentence to show that it was a question, which in turn was shortened to qo. Eventually, the q was written on top of the o, before steadily morphing into a recognisably modern question mark. However, just like our cat friends above, there is no manuscript evidence for this theory. The story accepted by most involves Alcuin of York, an English scholar and poet born in 7. Charlemagne in 7. Once there, Alcuin became one of Charlemagnes chief advisors, and wrote a great number of books, including some works on grammar. In the early Middle Ages, punctuation was limited to a system of dots at different levels. Recognizing the limitations of this system, Alcuin created the punctus interrogativus or point of interrogation. This mark was a dot with a symbol resembling a tilde or lightning flash above it, representing the rising tone of voice used when asking a question. This new punctuation mark spread rapidly from the court of Charlemagne to other centres of learning. However, its use still remained haphazard, and it was often interchanged with the exclamation mark, or omitted entirely. It wasnt until the 1. See other Questions about symbols. Essential English Grammar In Use Pdf. Discover the origin of the symbol. Or you might be interested in the name of the symbol. Define question mark. Chip Coakley revealed the symbol in question is two dots, one above the other. The question mark also known as an interrogation point, interrogation mark, question point, query, or eroteme, is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop period at the end of an interrogative. I meet some scala code with but do not know what it mean in scala, could anyone explain it to me Thanks. And heres one example def getJobIdconf Configuration. Inverted question and exclamation marks. Inverted question marks and exclamation marks Commonwealth English or exclamation points American English are punctuation marks used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences or clauses, respectively, in written Spanish and sometimes also in languages which have cultural ties with Spanish, such as in older standards of Galician now it is optional and not recommended and the Waray language. They can also be combined in several ways to express the combination of a question and surprise or disbelief. The initial marks are normally mirrored at the end of the sentence or clause by the common marks, used in most other languages. Unlike the ending marks, which are printed along the baseline of a sentence, the inverted marks and descend below the line. Inverted question mark. Inverted exclamation mark. General typographyampersand asteriskat signbackslashbulletcaretdagger degreeditto markinverted exclamation markinverted question markkomejirushi, kome, reference marknumber sign, pound, hash, octothorpenumero signobelusmultiplication signordinal indicator percent, per mil  plus and minus equals signbasis pointpilcrowprime    section signtildeunderscore, understrikevertical bar, pipe, broken bar     Related. In other scripts. Inverted marks were originally recommended by the Real Academia Espaola Spanish Royal Academy in 1. On computers, inverted marks are supported by various standards, including ISO 8. Unicode, and HTML. They can be entered directly on keyboards designed for Spanish speaking countries, or via alternative methods on other keyboards. Black Question mark from Question words, search for answer vector illustration, confusion concept or ask symbol for communication design 3d human with a red question mark. Pop art speech bubble with question mark. Shop for question mark symbol on Etsy, the place to express your creativity through the buying and selling of handmade and vintage goods. Question Mark Symbol' title='Question Mark Symbol' />The inverted question mark is a punctuation mark written before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause to indicate that a question follows. It is an inverted form of the standard symbol recognized by speakers of languages written with the Latin alphabet. What is the origin of the question mark Rather fittingly, the answer is somewhat clouded in myth and mystery we ask some searching questions on the topic. Upside down question and exclamation marks are punctuation marks of Spanish language used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences. They can also be combined in several ways to express the. The question mark is not used for indirect questions. The question mark glyph is also often used in place of missing or unknown data. Contents. The inverted question mark is a punctuation mark written before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause to indicate that a question follows. It is an inverted form of the standard symbol recognized by speakers of languages written with the Latin alphabet. In most languages, a single question mark is used, and only at the end of an interrogative sentence How old are you This was once true of the Spanish language. The inverted question mark was adopted longspecify after the Real Academias decision, published in the second edition of the Ortografa de la lengua castellana Orthography of the Castilian language in 1. Spanishe. g. Cuntos aos tienes How old are you. The Real Academia also ordered the same inverted symbol system for statements of exclamation, using the symbols and. This helps to recognize questions and exclamations in long sentences. Do you like summer and You like summer. Te gusta el verano and Te gusta el verano. There is no difference between the wording of a yesno question and the corresponding statement in Spanish as there is in English. These new rules were slowly adopted there exist nineteenth century books in which the writer does not use either opening symbol, neither the nor the. In sentences that are both declarative and interrogative, the clause that asks a question is isolated with the starting symbol inverted question mark, for example Si no puedes ir con ellos, quieres ir con nosotros If you cannot go with them, would you like to go with usSome writers omit the inverted question mark in the case of a short unambiguous question such as Quin vieneWho comes. This is the criterion in Catalan. Certain Catalan language authorities, such as Joan Sol, insist that both the opening and closing question marks be used for clarity. Some Spanish language writers, among them Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda 1. It is common in Internet chat rooms and instant messaging now to use only the single as an ending symbol for a question, since it saves typing time. Multiple closing symbols are used for emphasis Por qu dices eso, instead of the standard Por qu dices eso Why do you say that. Some may also use the ending symbol for both beginning and ending, giving Por qu dices eso Given the informal setting, this might be unimportant however, teachers see this as a problem, fearing and claiming that contemporary young people are inappropriately and incorrectly extending the practice to academic homework and essays. See Internet linguistics Educational perspective. In 1. John Wilkins proposed using the inverted exclamation mark as a symbol at the end of a sentence to denote irony. He was one of many, including Desiderius Erasmus, who felt there was a need for such a punctuation mark, but Wilkins proposal, as was true of the other attempts, all failed to take hold. Although it has now become rare, it is correct usage in Spanish to begin a sentence with an opening inverted exclamation mark and end it with a question mark, or vice versa, for statements that are questions but also have a clear sense of exclamation or surprise such as Y t quin te crees Who do you think you are. Normally, four signs are used, always with one type in the outer side and the other in the inner side nested Y t quin te crees, Y t quin te crees7Unicode 5. U2. E1. 8INVERTED INTERROBANG, which is an inverted version of the interrobang also known as a gnaborretni, a nonstandard punctuation mark used to denote both excitement and a question in just one glyph. Computer usage. Edit. Encodings. Edit and are both located within the Unicode Common block, and are both inherited from ISO 8. Unicode codepoint U0. A1 decimal entity reference 1. HTML named entity reference iexcl. Unicode codepoint U0. BF decimal entity reference 1. HTML named entity reference iquest. In both cases, the i in the named entity reference is an initialism for inverted. Input methods. Edit. The character is accessible using Alt. Gr1 on a modern US International keyboard. It is also available using a standard US keyboard by switching to the US International keyboard layout. Spanish speaking countries. Users of English US keyboards under Microsoft Windows can obtain the inverted question mark using the Alt code method by holding down the Alt key and pressing 0. In Microsoft Word, the inverted question and exclamation marks can be typed by holding down the Ctrl, Alt, and shift keys while typing a normal question or exclamation mark, or by typing either mark at the start of the sentence whilst in the Spanish language mode. Install Certificate Call Manager 8. Windows users with a US keyboard layout are able to switch to the US International layout. Among other changes, this converts the Alt key to the right of the space bar into the Alt Gr graphics key. The left Alt key remains unchanged. When the right Alt key is held down and other keys are pressed, the combination produces other characters not found on the standard US keyboard. For instance, the keystroke right Alt1 produces an inverted exclamation mark, while right Alt yields the inverted question marks. Another way of inputting on Windows is to hold Alt and type 1. Input methods for mac. OSEdit. On the mac. OS platform or when using the US Internationalus intl keyboard layout on Windows and Linux, and can be entered by pressing Alt Option1 and ShiftAlt Option respectively.