#Belgian-French

[punctuation-completionist]

since today is punctuation day, i figured i'd talk with you about my favorite punctuation that is sadly not in unicode

(my apologies if these crop weird)

these six marks were invented by french writer hervé bazin in his essay plumons l'oiseau (or 'let's pluck the bird')

while the essay also had aim to switch the french language to a more phonetic writing system, it also gave us six new punctuation marks!

from left to right and top to bottom these are, the acclamation point, the authority mark, the conviction point, the doubt point, the irony mark, and the love point. so let's go over what these all were supposed to convey! (or at least what i expect they were supposed to)

the acclamation point was meant for praise, goodwill, and enthusiasm (ie "Well done [acclamation point]")

the authority mark was meant to be used in situations where the exclamation was serious and involved a degree of command or urgency (ie "Get in my office right now [authority mark]") i think this— along with the love point and irony mark— shows how a lot of these punctuation marks were a bit like early examples of tone tags, i'll get into it more later

the certitude point was used to show sureness in a fact. (ie "It's absolutely positively true [certitude point]") i think this might be the most useless of the bunch but whatever. i digress.

the doubt point is kind of the opposite of the certitude point, used when you aren't sure of something (ie "It should be done tomorrow [doubt point]") also it should be noted that the example used above is not the only way you'll see the doubt point, some also have it looking like this

the idea of irony marks has been widely suggested, for example the poet/art critic/song writer (i think, this guy's only wiki page is in french and i am guessing a bit on the word 'chansonnier') alcanter de brahm suggested an irony mark that resembled a backwards question mark (not to be confused with the percontation point which indicated a rhetorical question) and belgian inventor (among other things) marcellin jobard suggested a point that looked like an upwards arrow (this △ on top of this |, i can't paste it)

^ de brahm's mark

all that to say, bazin's mark was based off of the greek letter psi (Ψ) which some of you may recognize if you are familiar with the greek language or comics that shall not be named. it's used in situations of irony (ie saying "Wow, that sure was brilliant [irony mark]" if someone did something stupid)

and our last point is the love point, known for being so adorable, and indicating love or affection after a sentence (ie "Thanks a lot bud [love point]")

now we can obviously see that some of these are very similar to tone tags! the love point could be like a /pos, the irony mark is kinda like a /sarc, the authority mark could be like a /srs . i just thought it was interesting i guess. i don't have a point (heh) here exactly except that i guess people might actually need these punctuation marks ? so unicode? give me the love point or give me death

anyways so that's some fun niche history for y'all! hope you enjoyed

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper - Daisy Town (1971)

[jareckiworld]

Farah Atassi — Woman Reading by the Window (oil and glycerol on canvas, 2024)

[ef-1]

otmar (team principal) fired, pat fry (technical director) gone, permane (sporting director) fired, rossi (ceo) fired, cyril (team principal) fired, marcin budkowski (executive director) fired. geninune question: who is left, like who is issuing out all these firings from the french skeleton of alpine? the hand of GOD????

[animatejournal]

The Adventures of Tintin | Creator: Hergé Studio: Nelvana | France/Canada, 1991

[celluloidrainbow]

JUSTE UNE QUESTION D'AMOUR (2000) dir. Christian Faure After his gay cousin dies from hepatitis, young Laurent, who lives with his best friend Carole, falls in love with Cedric, a botanist. At different stages of coming out, they soon get in an argument over whether Laurent should reveal his sexuality to his parents. (link in title)

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

François-Joseph Navez (Belgian, 1787-1869) Saint Cecilia of Rome, Detail, 1824 Beaux-Arts Mons

[alexturntable]

ScuderiaFerrari 10/10 French skills @/carlossainz55 😂

[spearxwind]

Hi Alex! Are you still volunteering for the Valencia catastrophe? How's it going?

It's going bad. We are going back on wednesday again to help some more because we havent been able to go back for a couple days

There is barely any help at all from the authorities, most of the work is being done by volunteers, farmers with their heavier equipment, and a few emergency vehicles they could spare to pump water out of the flooded areas.

A couple days ago they barred the entrance to affected areas to volunteer workers so that the president of the province, the president of the country, and the king could go in there and take some pictures and say a speech. But they only made it three streets in before being shooed out with calls of "MURDERER" and people throwing mud, eggs, and sticks at them. (All three of these people have power to override bureocracy and send help to the people, but they are all refusing for some reason. despite the catastrophe being the size it is. Theres nuance to the situation but the response from the people is very warranted)

People are only receiving supplies and aid from volunteers so if it wasnt for the thousands of people volunteering they wouldnt have anything.

On a brighter note, my friends houses are pretty clean, and some people are now able to consider getting new furniture, but it's still gonna be a while until everything has been cleaned up.

[solcattus]

Le lever du matin, c. 1926

By Jean-Joseph Weerts

[ilianazzzfanofblogs]

My biggest flex is understanding Nick when he speaks French.

[jareckiworld]

Antoine Roegiers — The Leaving of the Aircraft (oil on canvas, 2021)

[huariqueje]

Two Trees , Menton    -    Anna De Weert , 1926.

Belgian , 1867 - 1950

Oil on canvas ,  150 x 136 cm.      59.1 x 53.5 in.

[illustratus]

Alain Delon and Léon Degrelle on the set of Zorro (1975)

[saintedseb]

St. Sebastian (1951) - Frans Masereel (Belgian/French, 1889-1972)

[the-cricket-chirps]

James Ensor, The Skate, 1892.

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, The Ray, 1728

Ken Currie, Tragic Form (Skate), 2014

Ken Currie, Tragic Forms No. 6, 2014