A 5,000 Year History of Punctuation: Interview with Florence Hazrat

Today, we live in a world where text is, by default, punctuated. But the ubiquity of punctuation is a surprisingly recent development. Florence Hazrat traces its evolution from early writing systems, where individual words weren't even separated by spaces, to the Renaissance, when most of the punctuation marks in our modern repertoire emerged. The conversation explores punctuation's roles in religion, education, printing, and literature, from ancient Alexandria and medieval manuscripts to Emily Dickinson and modern texting. To buy Florence's excellent book On the Mark, click here.  To support Words for Granted and gain access to ad-free episodes, click here.