Upside-down question and exclamation marks

The upside-down (also inverted, turned or rotated) question mark Template:Char and exclamation mark Template:Char are punctuation marks used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences or clauses in Spanish and some languages that have cultural ties with Spain, such as Asturian and Waray. The initial marks are mirrored at the end of the sentence or clause by the ordinary question mark, Template:Char, or exclamation mark, Template:Char.

Upside-down marks are supported by various standards, including ISO-8859-1, Unicode, and HTML. They can be entered directly on keyboards designed for Spanish-speaking countries.

Usage

File:Signosdepuntuación html y binario.pdf

Punctuation marks in Spanish, showing their positions relative to the baseline

The upside-down question mark Template:Char is written before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause to indicate that a question follows. It is a rotated form of the standard symbol "?" recognized by speakers of other languages written with the Latin script. A regular question mark is written at the end of the sentence or clause.

Upside-down punctuation is especially critical in Spanish since the syntax of the language means that both statements and questions or exclamations could have the same wording. "Do you like summer?" and "You like summer." are translated respectively as and (There is not always a difference between the wording of a yes–no question and the corresponding statement in Spanish.)

In sentences that are both declarative and interrogative, the clause that asks a question is isolated with the starting-symbol upside-down question mark, for example: ("If you cannot go with them, would you like to go with us?"), not * This helps to recognize questions and exclamations in long sentences.

Unlike the ending marks, which are printed along the baseline of the text, the upside-down marks (¿ and ¡) descend below the line.

History

Upside-down marks, simple in the era of hand typesetting, were originally recommended by the (Royal Spanish Academy), in the second edition of the (Orthography of the Castilian language) in 1754 recommending it as the symbol indicating the beginning of a question in written Spanish—e.g. ("How old are you?"; Template:Lit). The Real Academia also ordered the same upside-down-symbol system for statements of exclamation, using the symbols "¡" and "!".

These new rules were slow to be adopted: there are 19th-century books in which the printer uses neither "¡" nor "¿".

Outside of the Spanish-speaking world, John Wilkins proposed using the upside-down exclamation mark "¡" as a symbol at the end of a sentence to denote irony in 1668. He was one of many, including Desiderius Erasmus, who felt there was a need for such a punctuation mark, but Wilkins' proposal, like the other attempts, failed to take hold.

Adoption

Some writers omit the upside-down question mark in the case of a short unambiguous question such as: ("Who comes?"). This is the criterion in Galician and formerly in Catalan. Certain Catalan-language authorities, such as Joan Solà i Cortassa, insist that both the opening and closing question marks be used for clarity. The current Institute for Catalan Studies prescription is never to use the upside-down marks for Catalan.

Some Spanish-language writers, among them Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), refuse to use the upside-down question mark.

Mixtures

It is acceptable in Spanish to begin a sentence with an opening upside-down exclamation mark ("¡") and end it with a question mark ("?"), or vice versa, for statements that are questions but also have a clear sense of exclamation or surprise such as: ("And who do you think you are?!"). Normally, four signs are used, always with one type in the outer side and the other in the inner side (nested) (, )

Unicode 5.1 also includes Template:Unichar, which is an upside-down version of the interrobang, a nonstandard punctuation mark used to denote both excitement and a question in one glyph. It is also known as a "gnaborretni" (Template:IPAc-en) (interrobang spelled backwards).

Computer usage

Encodings

Template:Char and Template:Char are in the "Latin-1 Supplement" Unicode block, which is inherited from ISO-8859-1:

• Template:Unichar
• Template:Unichar

Typing the character

File:Left side of modern US-International keyboard.JPG

The Template:Char character is accessible using AltGr+1 on a modern US-International keyboard. It is also available using a conventional US keyboard by switching to the US-International keyboard layout.

Template:Char and Template:Char are available in all keyboard layouts designed for Spanish-speaking countries. Smartphones typically offer these if Template:Keypress or Template:Keypress is held down in the on-screen keyboard. Auto-correct will often turn a normal mark typed at the start of a sentence to the upside-down one.

On systems with an AltGr key (actual or emulated via right Alt key) and Extended (or 'International') keyboard mapping set, the symbols can be accessed directly, though the sequence varies by OS and locality and is documented by the vendor. Otherwise see Unicode input.

See also

• Spanish orthography