A: Punctuation Marks

 Meanings can be expressed simply and effectively without using

words.
 Example: An author wrote a book and wanted to know if it was
successful. So, he sent a note to the publisher. The note stated “?”,
whereas publisher replied with a “!” as the book was so successful
that it needed to be reprinted.
 If there were no punctuation marks, the paragraph would be like an
unbroken series of letters and numbers, which people would have
to break down to understand.
 Originally, the comma was meant to allow the speaker to take a
breath when reading to an audience.
 These days, it is used to separate parts of a sentence.

B: Exclamation Mark
 Punctuation marks are important but some of them can be
considered irritating.
 A grammar book stated to avoid using exclamation marks
frequently when writing, as it may give the impression of the writer
lacking in skills or trying to make something boring look exciting.
 The symbol most probably came from a religious text a long time
ago.
 The symbol came from a Latin word for joy called: “io”, where the
capital I was above the O.
 Eventually, it became the exclamation mark that we use today.
C: Question Mark
 A question mark was indicated by the shape of a curious cat’s tail
during Ancient Egypt, where shapes and object were used to
communicate in writing.
 There is an uncertainty where this mark came from as some said it
came from Egypt.
 Others said it was from the Latin language as writers used to write
a shorter version of the word “question” at the end of the sentence
to show that the sentence was a question.
 And they kept shortening it until it became the question mark that
we use today.
 As there is a lack in accurate historical records, we may never
know which is correct: Egypt or Latin or maybe it could be
someone else that came up with the question mark.

D: Equal to
 Over time, some symbols have moved quickly from being an
invention to common use.
 One of them is “equal to” from math. Many years ago, it would be
written as a whole word until a Welsh mathematician suggested
using a pair of short lines which were equal in length and one
above the other, so that the written word would not be annoyingly
repeated.
 There was also a situation where a question mark was drawn
another way as if it was reflected in a mirror – to represent a
rhetorical question but it is no longer used.
E: Currency and Other Symbols
 British Currency: created from the letter L, where a line drawn
through it – shorter word for Libra (a pound unit for weight in
Ancient Rome).
 Japanese Yen and Euro also uses the same system: The letter Y
with two lines through it and the Letter E with two lines through it.
 Dollar used S and not D because of the Spanish peso which was
drawn as P and then changed to S.
 These days, social media uses hashtag to tag something but those
days, around 1960s, it was in the early telephone keypads which
had no function at all.