The Death of the Semicolon

We’ve written about punctuation a few times here on slaw in the past, in particular, Simon’s lament for the semi-colon.

It’s not every day you get to read a lengthy article on the history of a punctuation point, but Slate’s piece today, “Has modern life killed the semicolon?” was just that. Despite current despair in France and the Fodden household about its declining use these days, the author points out that its disuse was despaired as far back as 1865.

The author seems to suggest that it was the telegraph that killed the semicolon. Makes you wonder what the first victim of the text message will be; my guess is capitalization.