Inverted commas are falling out of fashion

They are inaudible and unpronounceable. They do not exist in spoken English—they are at best a pause rather than a presence: no one (with apologies to those listening to this article in our audio edition) could describe the sound of “”. Yet their increasing absence is causing conniptions.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Inverted snobbery”