Guillemets are, by Oxford Dictionaries definition:
Each of a pair of punctuation marks (« ») used as quotation marks in French and other European languages.
This is backed up by Wiktionary:
Guillemets (/ˈɡɪləmɛt/, or /ɡiːəˈmeɪ/; French: [ɡijmɛ]), angle quotes,
angle brackets, or carets, are a pair of punctuation marks in the form
of sideways double chevrons (« and »), used as quotation marks
However, I would like to know if there is a use for guillemets in the English language?
My research is below:
Source 1:
The furthest Google has taken me is Writeawriting. It states:
The guillemet is used to mark the starting and the ending point of an entire conversation (this includes phrases like ‘he said’, ‘she replied’, ‘we told’ etc). This use is more specific to French language and many other Non-English languages.
Though, as the article's title is "What is guillemet and how to use it in English language" (all [sic]), it doesn't specify whether it is sometimes used in the English language, rarely is, or if it's used at all. The rest of the article discusses programming and the like, so not useful.
Source 2: EL&U answer to:
Is it acceptable to nest parentheses?
User Orbling attests:
…I do it, but then I spend a lot of time as a mathematician.
If it gets confusing I think using alternative bracket glyphs assists ([{<« »>}]).
[Though using the guillemets (« ») as brackets can get you in to [sic]
trouble, as a lot of languages use them as speech marks. (Wikipedia.) ]
This indicates that using guillemets in the layering scheme for brackets is a thing, but is it correct?
Source 3: EL&U question Why Do Guillemets Sometimes Appear?
User Benjamin McAvoy-Bickford asks:
I have noticed, recently, that guillemets are being used in all sorts of odd ways. I saw one example where they seemed to be inserted around a few shorter words in a slogan for no reason at all. Is there such a thing as a proper use of guillemets in English? Similarly, are guillemets sneaking in because people don't remove them, as partially addressed in this question? I live in America, so I was particularly thinking about American English, though British English-based answers could help.
Then user Hot Licks comments:
The use of the
<<and>>brackets is unusual in normal English and has no established meaning.
In regards to this, guillemets may be rare in English, but, as we've established previously, they aren't unseen; they have a meaning to at least some people.
And this brings us back to square one!
All answers appreciated.
NB: BrE, AmE, AuE, CaE etc. based answers are all accepted.
Best Answer
I am reading a dissertation written in English in the 1930s by an American who got his PhD from a French university, but who's committee wanted him to use English, as his contribution was to present the work of an important German sociologist to the English-speaking world. He uses guillamets all the time. They are not really being used as quotation marks, and are probably there because of the his writing for his French-speaking supervisor, rather than for proper English.
I came to this page because I wanted to quote the following passage, which uses guillamets in English:
No part of the passage is presented as a nested quotation, so quotations doesn't do it justice. I see the list as some examples of "innumerable [names of abstract collective entities]". I therefore, interpret this use of guillamets for modern, standard English as best quoted using italics. I got this from the Millersville University Grammar and Punctuation guide (https://blogs.millersville.edu/bduncan/italics-quotation-marks-underscore/)
My quotation will not use guillamets, but italics instead, as below. Even though the author's purpose was not for emphasis, italics are always called emphasis.