Editing Question mark (section)

==History==
The history of the question mark is contested. One popular theory posits that the shape of the symbol is inspired by the crook in a cat's tail, often attributed to the ancient Egyptians.<ref name=burb>{{cite news |last1=Casagrande |first1=June |title=A Word, Please: Curious cases surrounding the question mark |url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/burbank-leader/opinion/tn-blr-me-aword-20190109-story.html |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=Burbank Leader |publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=10 January 2019}}</ref> However, Egyption hieroglyphics did not utilize punctuation marks.<ref>{{cite web |title=Daily Life in Ancient Egypt |url=http://giza.fas.harvard.edu/lessons/ancient-egyptian-writing |website=Digital Giza |publisher=The Giza Project at Harvard University |access-date=15 May 2025}}</ref> 

In the fifth century, [[Classical Syriac|Syriac]] Bible manuscripts used question markers, according to a 2011 theory by manuscript specialist Chip Coakley: he believes the ''zagwa elaya'' ("upper pair"), a vertical double dot over a word at the start of a sentence, indicates that the sentence is a question.<ref>{{cite web |title=The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it's the world's earliest question mark |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-riddle-of-the-syriac-double-dot-its-the-worlds-earliest-question-mark |website=University of Cambridge |date=2011-07-21 |access-date=2022-11-01 |archive-date=2022-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101174509/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/the-riddle-of-the-syriac-double-dot-its-the-worlds-earliest-question-mark |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Symbol in Syriac may be world's first question mark |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-academic-questionmark-idUKTRE76K4ZI20110721 |website=Reuters |date=2011-07-21 |access-date=2022-11-01 |archive-date=2022-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101182412/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-academic-questionmark-idUKTRE76K4ZI20110721 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Btv1b6000718s.png|thumb|8th century ''punctus interrogativus'' from the [[Godescalc Evangelistary]]. ([https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000718s/f12 BnF NAL 1203, f. 6v].)]]
From around 783, in [[Godescalc Evangelistary]], a mark described as "a lightning flash, striking from right to left" is attested.{{r|grammarphobia}}{{sfn|Truss |2003|page=159}} This mark is later called a {{wikt-lang|en|punctus interrogativus}}. According to some [[palaeography|paleographers]], it may have indicated [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], perhaps associated with early musical notation like [[neume]]s.<ref name=grammarphobia>{{cite web |title=The Grammarphobia Blog: Who invented the question mark? |url=https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2022/02/question-mark.html |website=www.grammarphobia.com |date=2022-02-28 |access-date=2022-11-01 |archive-date=2022-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101193645/https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2022/02/question-mark.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Another theory, is that the "lightning flash" was originally a [[tilde]] or [[titlo]], as in {{char|·~}}, one of many wavy or more or less slanted marks used in [[medieval]] texts for denoting things such as [[abbreviations]], which would later become various [[diacritics]] or [[Typographic ligature|ligatures]].<ref>{{cite book |first=M. B. |last=Parkes |title=Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=1993 |isbn=0-520-07941-8}}</ref><ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mquestionmark.htm The Straight Dope on the question mark] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711051031/http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mquestionmark.htm |date=July 11, 2007}} (link down)</ref> The creation of the ''punctus interrogativus'' has also been attributed to [[Alcuin of York]], an advisor to [[Charlemagne]].<ref name=burb/>

[[File:Punctus interrogativus from Bern, Bürgerbibliothek Cod. 162, f. 15r.jpg|thumb|An 11th century ''punctus interrogativus''; in the third line, before "tamen". ([[Burgerbibliothek of Berne|Burgerbibliothek Bern]], [https://www.e-codices.ch/en/bbb/0162/15r Cod. 162, f. 15r].)]]
From the 10th century, the pitch-defining element (if it ever existed) seems to have been gradually forgotten, so that the "lightning flash" sign (with the stroke sometimes slightly curved) is often seen indifferently at the end of clauses, whether they embody a question or not.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In the early 13th century, when the growth of communities of scholars ([[university|universities]]) in Paris and other major cities led to an expansion and streamlining of the book-production trade,<ref>De Hamel, Christopher ''History of Illuminated Manuscripts'', 1997</ref> punctuation was rationalized by assigning the "lightning flash" specifically to [[interrogative]]s; by this time, the stroke was more sharply curved and can easily be recognized as the modern question mark (see, for example, ''{{interlanguage link|De Aetna|it}}'' (1496) printed by [[Aldus Manutius|Aldo Manuzio]] in [[Venice]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Bembo|first=Pietro|author-link=Pietro Bembo|date=1495–1496|title=De Aetna|url=https://digital.wlb-stuttgart.de/index.php?id=6&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=1582&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=14|location=[[Venice]]|publisher=[[Aldus Manutius|Aldo Pio Manuzio]]|at=f. 4v}}</ref>).

In 1598, the English term ''point of interrogation'' is attested in an [[Italian language|Italian]]–English dictionary by [[John Florio]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Florio |first=John |author-link=John Florio |title=A worlde of wordes, or, Most copious, and exact dictionarie in Italian and English |date=1598 |publisher=By Arnold Hatfield for Edw. Blount |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldeofwordesor00flor/page/188 188] |url=https://archive.org/details/worldeofwordesor00flor/page/188|quote=Iterogatiuo punto, a point of interrogation.}}</ref>

In the 1850s, the term ''question mark'' is attested:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Parker |first1=Richard Green |last2=Watson |first2=J. Madison |title=The National Second Reader: Containing preliminary exercises in articulation, pronunciation, and punctuation |series=National series; no. 2 |date=1859 |publisher=A. S. Barnes & Burr |location=New York |page=[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nc01.ark:/13960/t26988j57?urlappend=%3Bseq=20 20] |hdl=2027/nc01.ark:/13960/t26988j57 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nc01.ark:/13960/t26988j57}}</ref>

{{blockquote|1=The mark which you are to notice in this lesson is of this shape '''?''' You see it is made by placing a little crooked mark over a period.... The name of this mark is the ''Question Mark'', because it is always put after a question. Sometimes it is called by a longer and harder name. The long and hard name is the ''Interrogation Point''.}}