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I thought that I should end all ambiguity regarding the punctuation in Liber Primus. Because the correlation between the punctuation marks in LP and in English is somewhat fuzzy, I thought that a thorough classification is what's needed.
I examine all existing punctuation marks in LP, give them names, give them some context and a singular Latin equivalent for use in transcriptions. I'm sure this was done before, but at this point, why not redo things?
On several occasions, what's semantically considered to be one singular symbol (full_stop_4) was seen to be broken by the linebreak, as if it was a sequence of symbols. This leads me to believe that more complex symbols are composed from the simple vertical primitives. My bold theory is that all of them are like that.
Only five primitives are needed to comprise all of the LP punctuation. They are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 dots. One can use Unicode characters to represent them. There's no Unicode character for 5 vertical dots, so instead a vertical bar is used.
This theory might be wrong: there's no proof that the large delimiters are composed the same way. But I still believe though: it's easier to create 5 primitives and compose all signs you need from them, than to create individual and unique complex delimiters (and as you will see they are pretty complex).
1 dot · 2 dots : 3 dots ⋮ 4 dots ┊ 5 dots |
Latin equivalent: ·
Primitive composition: ·
Dot count: 1
Numerical composition: 1
Occurence: throughout the LP
This symbol is used as space between words and, sometimes, other punctuation marks.
Latin equivalent: ,
Primitive composition: :
Dot count: 2
Numerical composition: 2
Occurence: Only solved pages.
Used predominantly as a comma. Commas are not seen in the unsolved LP at all.
Note how it doesn't appear at all in the unsolved pages: this is the most drastic change of typography between the two portions of LP.
Latin equivalent: ; or ,·
Primitive composition: :·
Dot count: 3
Numerical composition: 2-1
Occurence: A lot in solved pages, only twice in unsolved pages.
This one is marked as ambguous because it is unclear whether it's a semantically separate punctuation mark, or a combination of a comma with a following space. Sometimes it can be seen used as a kind of a semicolon, hence the name. On many occasions, thought, it's usage as semicolon may seem weird in the cleartext.
It might be a sign on its' own, or it might be mere sloppy typography from 3301.
Note it's rarity in the unsolved pages.
Latin equivalent: .
Primitive composition: ·:·
Dot count: 4
Numerical composition: 1-2-1
Occurence: throughout the LP
This full stop is used to separate sentences. On pages 22(05), 28(11) and 37(20) it can be seen to be broken by the linebreak, which leads to the idea that all the signs are composed of primitives.
Latin equivalent: .· or …
Primitive composition: ·:··
Dot count: 5
Numerical composition: 1-2-1-1
Occurence: only once at page 12.
This is a unique symbol. It is unclear whether it's just a full-stop sloppily followed by a stray whitespace, or is it a sign on its' own.
The only reason to consider it as its' own sign is its' placement. On page 12, it's seen in the following text:
ADHERENCE: we follow dogma so that we can belong and be right[FULL_STOP_5] or we follow reason so we can belong and be right.
Usage of an actual full stop here sounds a bit quirky. A comma or a semicolon would be more natural here, but both seem to have signs of their own. Alternative interpretations could be a dash or an ellipsis. Seeing as it's basically a full stop with an addition, I concluded that ellipsis could be a viable interpretation. But still - it's just a guess, and we likely will never know the intention behind this one symbol. Luckily, it's a part of an already solved text.
Latin equivalent: %
Primitive composition: ⋮┊⋮
Dot count: 10
Numerical composition: 3-4-3
Occurence: Throughout the LP.
Precedes the lists as a kind of a colon, but also sometimes used to delimit the subheaders in lists, and sometimes it even starts lines. This is why I didn't assign a simple Latin colon to it: because a colon never starts lines, and because it could be confused with COMMA_2. From this point on, I assign completely arbitrary latin equivalents to the delimiters.
Latin equivalent: #
Primitive composition: ⋮|⋮
Dot count: 11
Numerical composition: 3-5-3
Occurence: Only the solved pages.
Used after redtext headers and subheaders, and to end sections. Only present in first 17 (solved) pages of LP. After that it gets completely superseded by DELIMITER_13, which is another drastic change in typography between solved and unsolved portions of LP.
11 is a prime number.
Latin equivalent: &
Primitive composition: ┊|┊
Dot count: 13
Numerical composition: 4-5-4
Occurence: Only the unsolved pages.
Used after redtext headers and subheaders, and to end sections. Only present in unsolved pages of LP.
13 is a prime number.
Latin equivalent: @
Primitive composition: ┊|||┊
Dot count: 23
Numerical composition: 4-5-5-5-4
Occurence: Once, at the very end of LP.
This, presumably, marks the end of the chapter. (I wrote "the entire book" initially, but then I was reminded that in fact we're on Chapter 1: Intus right now, and potentially there can be more chapters to the book. Which makes me wonder what kind of gigantic sign would mark the end oh whole book? Will it contain 3301 dots?)
23 is a prime number.
Latin equivalent: " and '
Occurence: Throughout the LP.
Only marks taken straight from normal Latin (3301 decided to not invent their own). Whenever they are used, the spacing before the next line increases to 110px instead of 74px (based on page 06). Ratio = 1.4(864).
Also these are the only punctuation marks that are antialiased.
As I've already mentioned, the style between the two portions changes in several ways:
