Irony Punctuation
Although in the written English language there is no standard way to denote irony or sarcasm, several forms of punctuation have been proposed. Among the oldest and frequently attested are the percontation point invented by English printer Henry Denham in the 1580s, and the irony mark, furthered by French poet Alcanter de Brahm in the 19th century. Both of these marks were represented visually by a backwards question mark, ⸮ (in Unicode: U+2E2E ⸮ reversed question mark (HTML: ⸮)). Using LaTeX, one can display it by including the graphicx package, and then using \reflectbox?.
These punctuation marks are primarily used to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. A bracketed exclamation point or question mark as well as scare quotes are also sometimes used to express irony or sarcasm.
Read more about Irony Punctuation: Percontation Point, Interrobang, Irony Mark, Scare Quotes, Temherte Slaqî, Other Typography
Famous quotes containing the word irony:
“English audiences of working people are like an instrument that responds to the player. Thought ripples up and down them, and if in some heart the speaker strikes a dissonance there is a swift answer. Always the voice speaks from gallery or pit, the terrible voice which detaches itself in every English crowd, full of caustic wit, full of irony or, maybe, approval.”
—Mary Heaton Vorse (1874–1966)