Guillemets ( /ˈɡɪləmɛt/, or /ɡiːəˈmeɪ/ from the French [ɡijmɛ]), also called angle quotes or French quotation marks, are line segments, pointed as if arrows (« or »), sometimes forming a complementary set of punctuation marks used as a form of quotation mark.
The symbol at either end – double « and » or single ‹ and › – is a guillemet. They are used in a number of languages to indicate speech. They resemble (but are not the same as) the symbols for lesser than, greater than (for the single <), and for left and right bit shifts in some programming languages, as well as rewind and fast forward on various media players, such as VCRs, DVD players and MP3 players.
The word is a diminutive of the French name Guillaume (the equivalent of which in English is William), after the French printer and punchcutter Guillaume Le Bé (1525–1598). Some languages derive their word for guillemets analogously; for example, the Irish term is Liamóg, from Liam 'William' and a diminutive suffix.
Used pointing outwards («like this») to indicate speech in these languages and regions:
Michel Armengot (born 16 September 1961), more commonly known as Art Mengo, is a French singer and songwriter. Though born in the French city of Toulouse, he is of Spanish descent as his parents had fled from Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
It is worth noting that Mengo was born with greatly diminished hearing. In fact, it was estimated by doctors that 70% of his hearing ability was missing. Despite this handicap, his mother gave him a keyboard as a plaything. It is now clear that this had an impact upon his future career. During his teenage years, corrective surgery for his ears helped him to regain his hearing ability. Music, however, was not Mengo's first career plan. Upon completing the baccalauréat, Mengo pursued chemistry and physics at university.
Music initially was a hobby to Mengo as his studies came first. During his university years, Mengo would play piano at a local bar during the evenings. Mengo had purchased an 8 Track recorder, and this would play heavily into his move into the music industry. With Mengo writing the music, and his brother-in-law producing lyrics a considerable inventory of music was created. It was good enough for Mengo to get his first record contract in 1988, shortly thereafter he released his first single, which was a hit on the French Top 50. His music quickly became popular, and by 1992 he was asked to write a song for French superstar Johnny Hallyday. In 1993 he wrote an entire album for German singer Ute Lemper. He performed the song "Parler d'amour" with Ute on this album.
Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms. She has collaborated with such celebrated musicians as Stereolab, Michel Colombier, Jean-Claude Vannier, Areski Belkacem, Gotan Project, Sonic Youth, Antoine Duhamel, Grace Jones, Noir Désir, Archie Shepp, Arno and The Art Ensemble of Chicago. She is also a novelist, writer, actress, playwright, and poet.
The daughter of two teachers, Brigitte Fontaine developed her taste for writing and comedy very early. She spent her childhood in small villages of Finistère, then in Morlaix. At 17 years old, she moved to Paris in order to become an actress.
In 1963, she turned to singing and appeared in several Parisian theatres, interpreting her own works. In 1964, she opened for Barbara and George Brassens’s show at the Bobino. Even so, she did not give up comedy. With Jacques Higelin and actor Rufus, she created the play Maman j'ai peur ("Mom I am afraid"), which played first at the Vieille-Grille theatre, and then at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. It met with such a critical and popular success that it stayed in Paris for more than two seasons and toured throughout Europe.