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[–] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Because the benign thing is standard as fuck in many languages, it's also in Unicode as a single character.

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  • [–] 0 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    A lot of languages sure, but not the language the comic is written in.

    I didn't realize it was one character though. I thought it was just double < and > I guess that does make it seem less likely to be an intentional dog whistle.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago

    They are used in the majority of European languages, including French. You might see them natively in Canadian-English written by the French speaking part.

    Furthermore, because they are used in ~41 different languages, someone using a keyboard layout in that language will get that character, even if the key they press is labeled with an " icon.

    Lastly, you should know that Breton (the language/culture that Great Britain is named after) uses them. Not actually directly relevant, but it does show a direct lineage of using guillemets in English. (And also it's a neat fact).

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