Punctuation resembling the modern question mark is known in Johto long before its people knew of Liepard, or indeed of Unova at all, for there is an Unown of that shape. But the sign's meaning was not fixed; in some documents it is seen as punctuation, but not necessarily following a question, and in other texts it represents letters lost to the modern language. Only with the discovery of Liepard, and the associated usage of this mark in Unova, did this sign become fixed around the world.
A Liepard's tail bears a strong resemblance to a question mark, especially in shape, but it is just as often compared to a scythe - for despite its light, wispy appearance, it is composed of remarkably sharp fur and capable of slicing a grown man's neck in two. In the wild, Liepard use these tails to drive away pests, and occasionally to hunt, although they prefer their claws for the latter task and use their tails only when their foe is on the verge of escaping. They serve a number of roles in human hands, but their most famous in Unova is that of executioners.
Capital trials in most of Unova's history, before the modern appeals process, were held with the defendant beneath a Liepard's tail, and the guilty (and the wrongfully convicted) were executed immediately. Whatever the judge or jury said, a Liepard's decision was absolute, for no individual could be executed without its acquiescence; should the pokemon have cause to doubt the verdict, the accused would be spared. For this reason, Liepard came to represent the questions of guilt or innocence and life or death – and as few could find greater questions, the symbol for a Liepard's tail in time became used in writing to represent any question at all.