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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!elsie!sck
From: sck@elsie.UUCP (Steve Kaufman)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: question about names for symbols
Message-ID: <5153@elsie.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 16:21:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: elsie.5153
Posted: Mon Jun 24 16:21:42 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 05:39:08 EDT
References: <2041@iddic.UUCP> <2086@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: NIH-LEC, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 23
Summary: Is there regional variation in names for special characters?

In article <2086@sdcrdcf.UUCP>, barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold)
writes from a site in California:

> Yes, I'm used to saying ! as "bang."    (And of course ~ is a tilda.)
> For the rest,
>   # is prosaically merely "number."
>   \ is "backwhack."
>   ` is "baquote."
>   | is "vertical" or "pipe."
>   < and > are "angle brackets"; { and } are "curly brackets."  [ and ] are
> just "brackets."

	Maybe this is another example of different ways of speaking
        in different parts of the country.

	The symbol names I've heard (along with where I first heard them)
	are as follows:

		!	shriek			Madison, WI
		\	backslash		    "
		`	grave accent		    "
		< >	pointy brackets		Pittsburgh, PA
		#	pound sign		    "