Vejared

[Jan]

Just go to Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools and then open Character Map. It will give you the keystroke code for characters not on the keyboard.

Perfect, thanks, ZD! I'd had a list of many alt+ codes once but lost it in a move many years ago. So do I even want to know why they never taught us that in Windows class?

Jan

[David Panzer]

Does that "alt-XXXX" work for this -> n̈, as well?

[Dr Maturin]

Just go to Start --> Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools and then open Character Map. It will give you the keystroke code for characters not on the keyboard.

[Capt.Montoya]

I actually asked my (Columbian) boss how to make the upside down exclamation point and question mark and he didn't know. He said that they're becoming less used now that computers have become more common.

Your boss needs a Spanish keyboard and to set up the Spanish keyboard layout... Otherwise is and Alt+XXXX code and I never memorized those four number codes for the "special" characters we use in Spanish.
Actually, even in the USA I still used diacritical marks (and ± and í and ┐) because I had a MacOS computer, those "special" characters are always an "option"+"other-key" away in a Mac.

But yes, those characters are unavailable in many keyboards, so they are becoming less used. Another problem is that computer systems sometimes don't display them correctly (happens a lot in email "encoded in a different character set").

[Jan]

The opening exclamation point (í !) and question marks ( ┐ ?) are necessary in the Spanish language, since we are more prone to run on sentences, instead of the short sentences that have become the norm in English (but weren't at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century), in such a long and winding, by USA English usage standards, paragraph ┐would you actually know where a question starts?
Without such signs you could be reading a sentence, and then when you reach the end you see a question mark, or an exclamation point and you wonder if all the sentence was a question or whether the sentence expressed something exclamatory from the beginning, or only the part after the last colon, it gets confusing, having the opening question mark and explanation points means í no surprises!

I actually asked my (Columbian) boss how to make the upside down exclamation point and question mark and he didn't know. He said that they're becoming less used now that computers have become more common.

I tried...

Jan
(who knew more Spanish going into the 2 years of classes than she knew coming out thanks to some wierd teaching 'methods' being experimented with back then.

[Capt.Montoya]

The opening exclamation point (í !) and question marks ( ┐ ?) are necessary in the Spanish language, since we are more prone to run on sentences, instead of the short sentences that have become the norm in English (but weren't at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century), in such a long and winding, by USA English usage standards, paragraph ┐would you actually know where a question starts?
Without such signs you could be reading a sentence, and then when you reach the end you see a question mark, or an exclamation point and you wonder if all the sentence was a question or whether the sentence expressed something exclamatory from the beginning, or only the part after the last colon, it gets confusing, having the opening question mark and explanation points means í no surprises!


Actually for short sentences and informally I have seen the dropping of the initial exclamation point and question marks, but I don't think they will (nor that they should) disappear. On the other hand I am quite happy that Ll and Ch disappeared as recognized "letters" in the dictionary.
The use of Spanish in the USA is evolving in a different way than in other countries. It's becoming Spanglish.
But I'm not at all against the evolution of the language, I'm only against its evolution through ignorance, some changes are devolutions due to lack of knowledge of proper usage and nothing else.
An example that always gave me a chuckle (still does) is when they announced "Pre-Owned" cars (whatever happened to "used cars"? Killed by Marketing?) in the Spanish language channels in Houston as "pre-poseÝdos."
The word "poseÝdo" in Spanish means possessed...
Had I bought one of those "pre-possessed" cars I'd have asked to have it exorcised!


P.S. I think that my example above of the need for the opening question mark doesn't work as well in English, in Spanish questions do not always include those certain words that indicate a question, and those words have other uses that do not indicate a conditional but a possitive statement.

[Dr Maturin]

The language is evolving. Shush.

I've never understood the necessity for two exclamation points. It IS evolving, as I've seen signs and billboards around here in Spanish that do not include the upside-down exclamation point. If they drop it, it'll be the biggest news about the Spanish language since they amended their alphabet (removed LL, etc.)

And on the subject of "copyright," it looks like the dictionary agrees that the word can be used as a transitive verb:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=copyright

Some stuffed shirt at an Ivy League school probably declared it okay to use in this manner, so no need to worry about making a grammatical error.

[Radhil]

The language is evolving. Shush.

[Dr Maturin]

Excellent! Thanks so much! It's just one of those little things that I've wondered about for a while now.

Muchas gracias!

Jan

You forgot the "í"

[Jan]

It was only after reading the definition and pasting it that I realized that the word exists in the English language as "to vex"

Had I known this post would have been much shorter, and maybe just a reply in the thread where the question arised, not a whole thread here.

Excellent! Thanks so much! It's just one of those little things that I've wondered about for a while now.

Muchas gracias!

Jan

[Joe Nazzaro]

Muchos gracias, seňor Montoya!

[Capt.Montoya]

In the found in eBay thread Jan asked:

Love the stress ball, Joe. Mike Vejar sounds like a great guy. I enjoyed his commentaries with JMS on the DVDs. Tell me, do you know what "I've been Vejar-ed" means? I understand that it was another gift but there seems to be an inside joke about what Vejar means in Spanish? C'mon, you can tell us!

Jan

The correct way to say it would be "I've been vejado"
Note that in Spanish the pronunciation would be beh-har (and I know of a surname Behar and always wondered if it's just an alternate spelling).

The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (http://www.rae.es/ ) defines "vejar" as:

vejar.
(Del lat. vexāre).
1. tr. Maltratar, molestar, perseguir a alguien, perjudicarle o hacerle padecer.
2. tr. Dar vejamen (ǁ reprensi¾n satÝrica y festiva).

Or as translated by yours truly:
_____________
From the latin vexare:
1. tr. To mistreat, molest, persecute someone, harm someone or make someone suffer.
2. tr. to give vexation (a festive and satirical reprehension).
_____________

It was only after reading the definition and pasting it that I realized that the word exists in the English language as "to vex"

Had I known this post would have been much shorter, and maybe just a reply in the thread where the question arised, not a whole thread here.