I suspect many languages don't have punctuation marks at all but apart from subtle changes (like European style quotation marks) does any language use an entirely different system of punctuation marks to English?

cobb367

This site offers some information about the Chinese and Japanese systems, which are not utterly different but do have certain unique features. I had thought Arabic might be a possibility, but apparently its system is now basically similar to the western (and is not to be confused with Arabic diacritical marks.) Russian punctuation was formulated according to French and German conventions in the 18th century. You might look at Mongolian or Amharic. http://www.answers.com/topic/punctuation May 21 05, 11:21 AM

Arpeggionist

In many old Bibles, where one can find punctuation, the Hebrew punctuation marks are actually very different. Not to be confused with their diacritical vowal sounds, the punctuation or "cantilation" marks (known also as "trop" or "ta'amei mikra" in Hebrew) serve both gramatical and musical purposes. These marks are only found in the printed books, as they are strictly forbidden from the traditional Torah scrolls. May 21 05, 4:26 PM