according to a 2011 theory by manuscript specialist Chip Coakley: he believes the zagwa elaya ("upper pair"), a vertical double dot over a word at the start of a sentence, indicates that the sentence is a question.

From around 783, in Godescalc Evangelistary, a mark described as "a squiggle rising diagonally from left to right above a point" or "a lightning flash, striking from right to left" is attested. This mark is later called a '. According to some paleographers,