Paragraphos

A paragraphos (Ancient Greek: παράγραφος, parágraphos, from para-, 'beside', and graphein, 'to write') was a mark in ancient Greek punctuation, marking a division in a text (as between speakers in a dialogue or drama) or drawing the reader's attention to another division mark, such as the two dot punctuation mark ⁚ (used as an obelism).

Various paragraphoi.

There are many variants of this symbol, sometimes supposed to have developed from Greek gamma (Γ), the first letter of the word graphos. It was usually placed at the beginning of a line and trailing a little way under or over the text.^[1]

It was referenced by Aristotle, who was dismissive of its use.^[2]

Unicode encodes multiple versions:

• U+2E0F ⸏ PARAGRAPHOS
• U+2E10 ⸐ FORKED PARAGRAPHOS
• U+2E11 ⸑ REVERSED FORKED PARAGRAPHOS
• U+205A ⁚ TWO DOT PUNCTUATION

See also

• Obelus and Obelism, Greek marginal notes
• Coronis, the Greek paragraph mark
• Pilcrow (¶), the English paragraph mark
• Section sign (§), the English section mark

References

1. Pearse, Roger (9 Nov 2010). "Paragraphos and Coronis—the joy of the chase". Retrieved 9 Oct 2014.
2. Pearse, Roger (10 Nov 2010). "More on the paragraphos mark". Retrieved 9 Oct 2014.