Sir, – Judith Goldberger (November 24th) calls for a typeface for irony to distinguish the satirical from the literal.
The notorious British politician and journalist Tom Driberg proposed a new typeface, based on italics with the slope reversed, to be called “ironics”, for just this purpose.
In the 17th century, the natural philosopher John Wilkins, who married Oliver Cromwell’s sister, proposed that irony should be marked with an inverted exclamation mark.
In the 1960s, the French author Hervé Bazin suggested the Greek letter psi (appropriately pronounced, sigh) should be used. To substitute intonation in speech, Bazin put forward other punctuation marks to signify love, acclamation, certainty, doubt and authority.
Since none of these have come into use, perhaps emojis could be used? The Times of London columnist Bernard Levin remarked that the only useful thing journalism had taught him was: "There is no joke so obvious that some bloody fool won't miss the point". – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.
Sir, – A typeface to denote irony? I suggest “comic sans”. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Florence,
Italy.