Cormac McCarthy and Runic Punctuation

Punctuation is a notoriously puzzling mystery in the world of runes. We essentially have 3 things to work with.

16EB	᛫	RUNIC SINGLE PUNCTUATION
16EC	᛬	RUNIC MULTIPLE PUNCTUATION
16ED	᛭	RUNIC CROSS PUNCTUATION

So working within these bounds, what can we do? Jump to the summary to see what I propose.

Less is more

Cormac McCarthy has 3 rules of punctuation which basically amounts to:

1. No quotation marks
2. No semicolons, and rarely colons.
3. I believe in periods, in capitals, in the occasional comma, and that’s it.

McCarthy also said:

James Joyce is a good model for punctuation. He keeps it to an absolute minimum. There’s no reason to blot the page up with weird little marks. I mean, if you write properly you shouldn’t have to punctuate.

To me, what McCarthy and Joyce are getting at is really the purpose of writing to begin with. We don’t hear punctuation most of the time. We certainly don’t hear quotation marks. At best we have short pauses and long pauses.

Full stop, comma, space

With this in mind, we can design some very basic principles with the material that we have.

Firstly, we have the space ᛫. That’s easy.

ᚦ᛫​ᛣᚫᛏ᛫​ᛁᚾ᛫​ᚦ᛫​ᚻᚫᛏ

The cat in the hat

A period or full stop is the longest pause that we have in speech. Visually, this should be reflected as the largest gap between runes. For this reason, let’s represent this as two of the space runes side by side ᛫᛫.

ᚦ᛫​ᛣᚫᛏ᛫​ᚹᛖᚾᛏ᛫​ᚻᚩᚹᛞ᛫​᛫​ᚫᛡ᛫​ᛏᚣᚹ᛫​᛫​

The cat went home. I went too.

Now McCarthy also uses commas. A comma is really just a smaller pause. So to represent this, we can turn the double dot full stop vertical ᛬. This way, it visually takes up a smaller gap between runes than the full stop, but it also shows something more significant than just a space.

ᚫᛡ᛫​ᛚᛖᚠᛏ᛬ᛒᚢᛏ᛫​ᚫᛡ᛫​ᛞᛁᛞᚾᛏ᛫​ᚹᚩᚾᛏ᛫​ᛏ᛫​᛫​

I left, but I didn’t want to.

Capitals

What stood out to me above however was McCarthy’s use of capitals. I wouldn’t normally connect the concepts of capitals and punctuation, so I asked Meta.ai to explain how he uses them

• No quotation marks: McCarthy often omits quotation marks to indicate dialogue, instead using a space or a line break to separate spoken words from the rest of the text.
• Infrequent capitalization: He rarely capitalizes the first-person pronoun “I” and often neglects to capitalize proper nouns, including names of people and places.
• Lowercase beginnings: McCarthy frequently starts sentences, including the first sentence of a chapter or section, with a lowercase letter.
• Emphasis through case: He occasionally uses all lowercase or all uppercase letters to convey emphasis or distinction, such as in the title of his novel “no country for old men”.
• Consistency: Despite these unconventional practices, McCarthy’s use of capital letters is consistent throughout his works, contributing to a distinctive and recognizable writing style.

What this tells me is that McCarthy uses capitals as a way to signify that some words are special. What that means may depend on the context. But I guess he isn’t using them just as sentence starters only, for example.

We can use the runic cross punctuation ᛭ when we want to signify that some text is special in some way, basically in the way that we would use captial letters. We wouldn’t use this to start all sentences, but maybe for names and certain terms (similar to the Shavian “namer dot” ·).

ᚦᛖᚾ᛭​ᛁᛚᚪᚱᛄ᛫​ᚸᚱᛇᛏᛟᛞ᛫​ᛗᛇ᛫​᛫​

Then Ilari greeted me.

ᛡᚣᚹᛟᚱ᛫​ᚠᚱᚩᛗ᛭​ᚫᛡᛟᚹᛟ᛬​ᛒᚢᛏ᛫​ᚫᛡᛗ᛫​ᚠᚱᚩᛗ᛭​ᛗᛁᛋᚳᛁᚸᛟᚾ᛫​᛫​

You’re from Iowa, but I’m from Michigan.

Now this isn’t to rule out that eventually we could have smaller case runes and larger case runes, similar to Cyrillic. But we certainly shouldn’t count on such a thing in the near term.

Question and Exclamation

Now what about question marks and exclamation points? Does McCarthy really avoid those too? I asked Meta to clarify yet again

• Rare use of question marks: McCarthy tends to avoid question marks, often replacing them with a period or a space, which can create a sense of ambiguity or uncertainty.
• No exclamation marks: He rarely, if ever, uses exclamation marks, which adds to the overall tone of restraint and understatement in his writing.
• Periods instead of question marks: When a sentence is structured as a question, McCarthy often uses a period instead of a question mark, which can make the sentence feel more like a statement or a declaration.
• Emphasis through sentence structure: McCarthy achieves emphasis through the structure of his sentences, using short, direct sentences to convey a sense of urgency or importance, rather than relying on exclamation marks.

Around the 700s, people used something like ᛫~,᛫˜, or ᛫̃, but that was replaced with the question mark that we see today by the 1600’s. So we could use ?᛫​ (or ᛫̃᛫) for a question. Basically the same as a full stop, but the first dot is replaced with a question mark.

But as mentioned above, how often is this even necessary? Most questions involve question words and phrasing, for example.

ᛞᛁᛞ᛫​ᛡᚣᚹ᛫​ᚸᚩᚹ?᛫​​​ᚻᚫᚹ᛫​ᚹᚩᛉ᛫​ᛁᛏ​?᛫​

Did you go? How was it?

If we absolutely need an exclamation mark, we could double up the comma. Or rather, double up the full stop ᛬​᛬, depending on how you look at it. Why not use ! since we could use ?. Well, ! supposedly has its origins in the latin letters “io”, so it’s a bit more latin-y in that sense.

ᚫᛡ᛫​ᛚᚢᚠ᛫​ᚦᚫᛏ᛬​᛬​ᛣᚫᚾ᛫​ᚫᛡ᛫​ᚻᚫᚠ᛫​ᛋᚢᛗ​?᛫​ᚦᚫᛝᛣ᛫​ᛡᚣᚹ᛫​᛫​

I love that! Can I have some? Thank you.

Ellipsis

Is there a pause longer than a full stop? An ellipsis … or em dash — could possibly fit that. Logically, this could be three space dots ᛫᛫᛫.

What would be a vertical pair for this one ⁝? Probably a semicolon, which is described as stronger than a comma, but weaker than a full stop.

ᛁᛏᛋ᛫​ᛋᚾᚩᚹᛁᛝ᛫​ᚫᛏ᛫​ᚦ᛫​ᛖᛖᚱᛈᚩᚱᛏ⁝​ᛣᚩᚾᛋᛟᛣᚹᛖᚾᛏᛚᛄ᛬​ᚩᚩᛚ᛫​ᚠᛚᚫᛡᛏᛋ᛫​ᚻᚫᚠ᛫​᛫​᛫​ᚫᛡ᛫​ᚹᚩᚹᚾᛏ᛫​ᛗᛖᛡᛣ᛫​ᛁᛏ᛫​ᚻᚩᚹᛗ᛫​᛫​

It’s snowing at the airport; consequently, all flights have… I won’t make it home.

Summary

In sum, what I am suggesting as the very basics is the following:

space ᛫
capital space ᛭
comma ᛬

full stop ᛫᛫

Cormac McCarthy could work with just that. I think it’s important to agree on some very minimal basics first, and let community usage determine the rest.

From here, people could add things. Stella’s system covers a lot of ground, for example.

Following the same logic as the above minimal suggestions however, here is an expanded set:

space ᛫
capital space ᛭
comma ᛬
semicolon ⁝

full stop ᛫᛫
question ​?᛫
exclamation ᛬᛬
interrobang ​?᛬

ellipsis ᛫᛫᛫

Tweet Share