52

In 1966 Bazin proposed 6 novel punctuation marks for acclamation, authority, certainty, doubt, irony, and love:

enter image description here

Is there a LaTeX package that provides macros of Bazin's punctuation marks?

There are alternative versions of the glyphs:

enter image description here

Alan Munn
  • 218,180
StrongBad
  • 20,495
  • 13
    Just a comment on Plumons l'Oiseau: this is the work of a fictional French Canadian professor who aimed to reform the French language. So none of it is intended to be serious, including the punctuation marks (which are attributed to Bazin, but really are the 'work' of Alexis Patagos, Bazin's character.) – Alan Munn Sep 26 '17 at 19:20
  • I would love to see some examples (or a link to some examples) of uses of these punctuation marks, to get the idea across better. – Wildcard Sep 27 '17 at 02:38

2 Answers2

50

When in doubt, assume the internet has done things for you. :)

Compile with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX using the font from here.

Also, for the linguistically inclined who can read French, Bazin's book is pretty funny. Here's a taste from the beginning:

Si je vous effraie, autant le dire tout de suite : vous allez en entendre d'autres ! J'aime donner un petit choc, dès le départ, à mes auditeurs. Vous m'avez compris : nous voilà en plein dans le sujet. Pourtant si vous me le permettez, je voudrais encore vous amuser un peu, de façon à vous emmener ensuite, d'un meilleur coeur, là où nous devons aller. Vous le savez, je suis né ici, mais je ne suis pas canadien pure laine : mes parents, qui parlaient grec, étaient des rapportés. J'ai appris le français, donc l'orthographe, avec une double méfiance : la méfiance de l'enfant raisonneur, indigné de s'apercevoir qu'entre ce qu'il entend et ce qu'on lui ordonne d'écrire il y a un fossé grand comme le Saint-Laurent ; la méfiance, aussi, de l'étranger, moins porté que d'autres à excuser les fantaisies d'une langue d'adoption. Le mot oiseau a été mon premier sujet de scandale. Je me disais : comment se fait-il que pour l'écrire, ce mot, quatre lettres suffisent et que, pourtant, pas une d'entre elles ne soit employée ? Comment se fait-il qu'on m'oblige à en utiliser six autres dont aucune n'est correcte ? O-i ne fait pas W A et n'est vraiment à sa lace que dans Möise. L'S est prononcé comme un Z. Et pour la finale, eau, on mobilise trois voyelles, un e, un a, un u, qui ont tous leur son propre, tandis qu'on se refuse de se servir de l'o, dont justement c'est le job. Voyez le vice, tout de même !

The book is a comedy about reforming the French language to make it 'logical'. So it, and the proposed punctuation marks, are not really to be taken seriously.

% Using Bazin font from here: http://jonathanzong.github.io/proposed-punctuation/
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\newfontfamily\bazin{Bazin}
\newcommand*\love{{\bazin^^^^2e43}}
\newcommand*\certainty{{\bazin^^^^2e44}}
\newcommand*\authority{{\bazin^^^^2e45}}
\newcommand*\irony{{\bazin^^^^2e46}}
\newcommand*\acclaim{{\bazin^^^^2e47}}
\newcommand*\doubt{{\bazin^^^^2e48}}
\begin{document}
\Huge
Love\love

Certainty\certainty

Authority\authority

Irony\irony

Acclaim\acclaim

Doubt\doubt
\end{document}

output of code

Alan Munn
  • 218,180
36

Well, 4 out of 6 (that look like the OP's originals) ain't bad...

RE-EDITED. After realizing some "interpretation" to the symbols was possible, I let my creativity take a stab at reinterpreting \doubt and \irony to complete the set, rather than give up.

Key in the growth of my approach was the notion that all glyphs should be based on standard punctuation marks, so I made them all based on slanted versions of ! or ?.

For \doubt, I tried to capture the essence of the symbol with a superposition of two question marks, of different scale, as in two tentative attempts at something.

For \irony, I chose to make an interpretation based on \psi atop a dot, as the OP had indicated in a comment. However, here, to preserve the notion of punctuation, I made the center stroke of the \psi an exclamation point.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine,graphicx,trimclip}
\newcommand\acclamation{%
  \stackengine{0pt}{!}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-30}{!}}{O}{l}{F}{F}{L}%
}
\newcommand\authority{%
  \kern-.1ex%
  \rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{\stackengine{.5ex}{!}{%
    \smash{\scalebox{1.3}[-.9]{\raisebox{-2.52ex}{\u{}}}}}{O}{c}{F}{T}{L}%
}}
\newcommand\certainty{%
  \stackengine{.5ex}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{!}}{\scalebox{.5}[1]{$-$}}{O}{r}{F}{F}{L}%
}
\newcommand\doubt{%
  \kern-.25ex%
  \raisebox{.15ex}{\setbox0=\hbox{?}%
  \rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{\stackengine{-.14ex}{\scalebox{.5}{\copy0\kern.2ex}}{%
  \clipbox{0pt .5\ht0 0pt -.15pt}{\copy0}}{O}{r}{F}{F}{S}}}%
}
\newcommand\irony{\stackengine{.67ex}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{!}\kern.5pt}{%
  \scalebox{.7}[.55]{$\psi$}}{O}{c}{F}{F}{L}}
\newcommand\love{%
  \scalebox{1}[.97]{\rotatebox[origin=b]{15}{\scalebox{-1}[1]{?}}}\kern-4.0pt%
    \rotatebox[origin=b]{-27}{\scalebox{.75}[1]{?}}%
}
\begin{document}
\acclamation\authority\certainty\doubt\irony\love
\end{document}

enter image description here


ORIGINAL ATTEMPT AT DOUBT

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine,graphicx,tipx,trimclip}
\newcommand\acclamation{%
  \stackengine{0pt}{!}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-30}{!}}{O}{l}{F}{F}{L}%
}
\newcommand\authority{%
  \stackengine{.5ex}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{!}}{%
    \scalebox{1}[-1]{\raisebox{-2ex}{\u{}}}}{O}{l}{F}{F}{L}%
}
\newcommand\certainty{%
  \stackengine{.5ex}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{!}}{\scalebox{.5}[1]{$-$}}{O}{r}{F}{F}{L}%
}
\newcommand\doubt{%
  \kern-.2ex%
  \raisebox{.1ex}{%
  \stackengine{-.2ex}{\scalebox{.6}{.\kern1.7ex}}{%
  \rotatebox[origin=c]{100}{\clipbox{.6ex 0pt 0pt 0pt}{%
    \rotatebox[origin=t]{-110}{\scalebox{.7}[1.15]{\textbenttailyogh}}}}%
  }{O}{c}{F}{F}{S}}%
  \kern-.9ex%
}
\newcommand\irony{\stackengine{.67ex}{\rotatebox[origin=b]{-15}{!}\kern.5pt}{%
  \scalebox{.7}[.55]{$\psi$}}{O}{c}{F}{F}{L}}
\newcommand\love{%
  \scalebox{1}[.97]{\rotatebox[origin=b]{15}{\scalebox{-1}[1]{?}}}\kern-4.0pt%
    \rotatebox[origin=b]{-27}{\scalebox{.75}[1]{?}}%
}
\begin{document}
\acclamation\authority\certainty\doubt\irony\love
\end{document}

enter image description here

A better approach may have been to take the pre-existing graphics for these symbols and use an approach like this, create latex symbol from vector graphics, to make them \LaTeX symbols that scale to the current font.

  • May be \xi or \zeta (or \psi as it describes in OPs image) for doubt, or irony, at least as a temporary solution until someone like Mark Wibrow or wipet bring some of their TikZ/pdf magic here :) – Manuel Sep 26 '17 at 18:41
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    I doubt I'm prepared for love to be so questionable ... but perhaps that was the point. – Alan Sep 26 '17 at 20:28
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    @Alan It is obvious you have little experience with life. As a typographer, you should ponder the paradox that love is so much more than a mere word...it is a sentence. – Steven B. Segletes Sep 26 '17 at 23:43
  • The irony symbol is most commonly used as https://problogservice.com/2011/11/30/using-the-irony-mark-or-sarcasm-mark/ or https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/e/e4/Point_d%27Duh_Brahm.png/revision/latest?cb=20090913234507 Could you also add the rethorical symbol, please https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/03-september-2017FEA-Stuff-About-Words_US170902-1024x341.jpg – skan May 26 '18 at 11:27
  • @skan The percontation is trivial: \scalebox{-1}[1]{?} – Steven B. Segletes May 26 '18 at 15:22