Diple ( grc, διπλῆ, meaning double, referring to the two lines in the mark >) was a mark used in the
margins
Margin may refer to:
Physical or graphical edges
*Margin (typography), the white space that surrounds the content of a page
*Continental margin, the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust
*Leaf ...
of ancient Greek manuscripts to draw attention to something in the text. It is sometimes also called antilambda because the sign resembles a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
capital letter
lambda
Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ris ...
(Λ) turned upon its side. In some ways its usage was similar to modern day
quotation marks
Quotation marks (also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an ...
;
guillemet
Guillemets (, also , , ) are a pair of punctuation marks in the form of sideways double chevrons, and , used as quotation marks in a number of languages. In some of these languages "single" guillemets, and , are used for a quotation inside a ...
s (« »), used for quotations in French, are derived from it.
Isidore remarks in his ''
Etymologiae
''Etymologiae'' (Latin for "The Etymologies"), also known as the ''Origines'' ("Origins") and usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was ...
'' (I.21.13)
that the diple was used to mark quotations from the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...
. He also talks about ''diple peri strichon'' (or ''sticon''), which was used to draw attention to separate concepts and ''diple periestigmene'' used (like
obelos) to mark dubious passages. ''Diple obolismene'' was used according to Isidore to separate sentences in
comedies and
tragedies, so its usage was similar to that of
paragraphos.
See also
*
Usenet quoting
*
Obelos
*
Coronis
References
External links
Punctuation
Palaeography
Punctuation
Ancient Greek punctuation
{{AncientGreek-lang-stub