One of the nice things about the internet is that when you make a statement or take a position that is objectively wrong, any number of helpful individuals will step up, do the right thing, and point out your wrongness. In the comments to my previous post, such an individual took time out of their busy and no doubt otherwise profoundly rewarding day to point out that I was guilty of such an error.
The folks at OpenSarcasm.org were kind enough to enlighten me as to a pre-existing, cheap, easy, painless, open-source punctuation mark to be used to denote sarcasm in written communication. The Temherte Slaqî (¡) is used in written Ethiopian in such a way. ¡ is an elegant solution to the written sarcasm problem.
Where the Wielgus Mark (:W) is made by holding down the [Shift] key and then striking the [:] and the [w] keys, the Temherte Slaqî is made by holding down the [Alt] key and then striking the [1], the [7], and the [3] keys in succession. The Weilgus Mark is simplistic, brutish, and crass; an altogether Americanish kludge of the most pedestrian sort. The Temherte Slaqî, on the other hand, satisfies the need for a smug, exotic, international feel, has both historical precedent and diacritical accuracy in its favor, is currently being used by at least 9 people in an internet café in Addis Ababa, and has the added advantage of requiring an extra keystroke!¡
So, as of today, I will expect all sarcastic comments made here in the Ratlands to be labeled with a ¡, and the use of :W is hereby banned. :W
{ 1 } Comments
Thank you, comrade, for sharing the news of the historically and cross-culturally accurate punctuation mark for sarcasm with your millions of readers!
We must shamefully admit that the :W has the typographic advantage over the ¡ of looking much more consistent with standard punctuation¡ You really got us there¡
However, we object to your characterization of Open Sarcasm as being used by only 9 people in an internet café in Addis Ababa. Word of our noble movement is spreading through the internet like wildfire and its adoption will only continue to grow. Sarcasm for the people!
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