The authors of On the Dot: the Speck That Changed the World (Humez, 2008) lay the blame squarely on an ancient Greek named Aristophanes of Byzantium. He was the librarian at the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt. So, go ahead and blame a librarian, but not this librarian! They write that he is generally credited with devising the first system of punctuation in the Western world. Aristophanes “. . . created a system of three dots (low, middle, and high) to address a problem of vital interest to the readers of his day: how to tell where (and for how long) to pause and take a breath while reading out loud.” (Humez 2008, x-xi).
Apart from all those breathless Greeks and Egyptians, the authors caution not to judge Aristophanes too harshly for his "invention." Kathryn Lasky explains in her childrens’ picture book, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, “Before this, one word ran into another with no spaces between them. There were no question marks, periods, or exclamation points either. Reading was hard!”
just imagine trying to read the following without punctuation marks it would be pretty difficult how about typing a web address what a jumble the comics wouldnt be half as much fun either if characters couldnt react with !**!#?*!! as they often do and you all know what that stands for or so Ive heard texting would be tough carol said forget about database searching it doesnt work well without punctuation marks
Whether you think of the librarian Aristophanes as a problem solver, or a problem maker, he was a librarian who changed the world forever with, three... little.. dots.
 | Carol Scamman cscamman@sfasu.edu rm. 202e 936.468.1710 Subjects - Art, English, Modern Languages, Social Work, Sociology, Theatre |
