Punctuation Pronunciation

• () parens
• [] brackets or square brackets
• {} braces or curly braces
• <> angle brackets or less than, greater than
• ^ caret
• # hash
• ! bang
• " quote or double quote
• ' tick or single quote
• ` backtick
• _ underscore (not underline)
• * splat or star or asterisk
• . dot (not period)
• | pipe or vertical bar
• ~ tilde
• @ at or at sign
• & ampersand
• => hashrocket
• <=> flying saucer

Waka Waka Poem

The following poem appeared in the May/June 1990 issue of Infocus magazine and has since been floating around the Internet. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

< > ! * ' ' #
^ " ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , ,  SYSTEM HALTED

Waka Waka Poem Transliterated

<    >    !    *     '    '    #
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,

^     "     `         $      $      -
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,

!    *     =     @  $      _
Bang splat equal at dollar underscore,

%       *     <    >    ~     #      4
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,

&         [       ]       .   .   /
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,

|            {             ,     ,     SYSTEM HALTED
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

Waka Waka Ruby Poem

A Ruby version would add the line

<=> => << >> HashWithIndifferentAccess

flying saucer hashrocket shovel shovel Mash

(written by Alex C, no credit required nor desired)