slash

[Charles C Doyle]

Follow-up:

Now several of my students (in different classes) are testifying to acquaintance with individuals named "L--a."  Is "L--a" the new "Caitlin"?

--Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Charles C Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 8:07 AM

Not the same topic, really, but this is still about vocalized (or "oralized") punctuation marks:

One of my students insists that she attended high school with a girl who spelled her name L--a and pronounced it "la dash ah" (the "dash" should appear as a solid line, probably).

I shared the information about L--a with a friend who teaches in elementary school, and she reported a similarly named student in her school:  K--a.

Of course, there are other vocalized and verbalized  punctuation marks (not counting Victor Borge's comedy routines), like "dot dot dot," and the clause-final exclamation "period!" and "quote" slash "unquote."

--Charlie

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