The April Fool Archive

Inventor of the Period    (April Fool's Day - 1956)

K. Jason Sitewell, in an article published in The Saturday Review, discussed the biography of Kohmar Pehriad (544-493 BC), inventor of punctuation in written language, and more specifically of the period. Pehriad, Sitewell explained, had traveled throughout Ancient Greece, Rome, Persia, North Africa, and Asia promoting the use of the period. He had also promoted use of the comma, which, like the period, was subsequently named after him (Kohmar). His son, Apos-Trophe Pehriad, introduced further markings, such as quotation marks and apostrophes. "The period did not come about by accident," Sitewell noted. "Someone had to invent it and fight for it."




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