Why are marks up side down?

Question

¡¿ why are those marks up side down in Spainsh?

Congratulations! ¡Enhorabuena! You have only been a member for minutes and you have been able to enter these Spanish characters ("¡" and ¿") properly. Many people are members for weeks or months before they learn how to do this. - Moe, Oct 6, 2009

Sí, buen trabajo. - eric_collins, Oct 6, 2009

But she spelt Spanish incorrectly, sorry, it was probably just a typing error. - Eddy, Oct 6, 2009

Answer 1

To indicate that it is going to be a question or an exclamation.

Answer 2

Samdie:

If we divide all opinions into two simple categories:

1. Mine
2. Wrong

Then those ¡¿ marks are upside-down.

Let's make life simple.

superb dichotomy-I use it often myself - 0074b507, Oct 6, 2009

Answer 3

Are you sure that it's not the ones at the end that are "upside-down"? Is there some rule of physics/logic that defines "rightside-up" and "upside-down", or do you merely mean "not the way that I am accustomed to writing them"?

Answer 4

i would say all of the above are right.

in spanish grammar you would write the 'upside down' symbols in the beginning of the question or exclamation to let the reader know that there is a question/exclamation coming:

¿Cúal es tu nombre? ¡Qué comida tan deliciosa!

as opposed to English, where you simply write them down at the end of the sentence:

What's your name? What a delicious meal!

It is simply a matter of conventions, in the same way that we adhere to the thought that some people are in the East and others in the West, all a matter of who made the rule (as I understant that is what samdie was trying to express, although I may be wrong).

Hope this answer helps!

Answer 5

Both of the above answers are correct

Answer 6

The same reason that quotation marks at the beginning of a quotation used to be upside down in English: so you can distinguish between the marks at the beginning and the end.