Grammar Girl here, I'm in Yon Fog, your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

Today I have a fun piece of history about the origin of punctuation

and then some useful tips about avoiding noun clusters.

And then, of course, course Thursday I'll have another grammar

girl conversations interview. This week with Anne Curzan about her new book

Says Who and why linguists should take marketing tips from Apple and why Ben Franklin thought

the word colonize was bad. Watch for it in your feed.

This first segment about punctuation is by Valerie Friedland.

There are so many things in life that just make you wonder who came up with the idea in the first place, like

flaming hot cheetos, skydiving, and pantyhose.

As someone who spends a lot of time discussing the relative merits of punctuation in its various

forms and functions, I've always wondered how the whole idea of punctuation developed in the

first place.

After all, periods might seem naturally necessary to tell us when a sentence is finished,

but semicolons are a whole different ballgame.

Considering that the ancient Greeks also gave us the concept

of parts of speech and impressive philosophizing, it might not be that surprising that

they also introduced a punctuation system about 2,000 years ago.

But even the Greeks weren't that dedicated to regular punctuation.

In antiquity, very few people were literate, and writing wasn't regarded the same way it is today.

Instead, public speaking was prized, and the development of strong oratory skills was the focus of most education.

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