pound signs

[Anthony Grant]

What you guys call the pound sign, the noughts and crosses sign (I know what tic-tac-toe is but I've spent a lot of time in the US and most Brits would just be puzzled) is called the Hash sign here.  Probably from French hache 'axe'.  It's fairly recent in use in Britain: we wouldn't have understood what the sign in (say) 'Riot in Cell Block #9' meant 20 years ago.  Now that we have it, I wonder how we ever lived without it.  

I customarily use $ for the posatalveolar sibilant in postings to people I think will understand.  British keyboards don't have the cent sign, though, which is a pity as I've long liked it as a quick way of signalling /ts/ in the way that Mayanists use it.  

Anthony
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