The Influence of Iranian Manuscript Illumination Tradition and European Writing Culture on the Use of Punctuation Marks in the First Iranian Press

Language is a means of communication between individuals that uses elements of both speech and writing to make this communication possible. When using the medium of writing, certain arrangements are required in order to bring the reader as close as possible to the mindset of the writer. One of such arrangements is using punctuation marks in the text. Punctuation marks greatly help the receiver of the message to understand the feelings and moods of the sender of the message when writing the piece. The common view is that all punctuation marks were borrowed from the Western writing tradition. Investigating the first Iranian press, the current research first reviews the history of such marks, and then shows that some of the marks used in writing were inherited from the Iranian manuscript illumination tradition while some others found their way into written language through different translations. However, sometimes the usage of some of the marks in the press differed from their original function.