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Me irl
(lemmy.radio)
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this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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me_irl
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Just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything. North Americans are fiercely enamored of an unaccented alphabet.
Our keyboards don't have diacritics so it's a pain in the butt to add one for a single word.
Hawai'i here, can confirm.
On mobile, it's pretty easy with a reasonable keyboard. For mine I just long press a letter and it let's me select the accent.
On desktop though? Yeah, it's a pain in the ass. I don't know how it's typically handled. I think it's possible to turn on a setting in KDE to let you press a modifier and then an accent and that accent will be placed on the previous character, or something like that. I'm pretty sure I saw that setting at one point, and enabled it, but I've never used it and don't remember how.
Windows has alt codes. Linux has a Unicode method I haven't memorized yet, and tablets and phones can just long press (at least Àndröîd can). There's a way, but most people probably don't know how. I don't know the Linux way myself due to my relatively recent switch, but I did learn the general codes for Windows Alt+0224 - 0255sh, I try different numbers until I find the one I need (roughly alphabetic, like 0224 is à and 0241 is ñ)
Looking closer now though it seems that's only lower case and there are more upper case below 220...
Like I said, it's a pain in the butt. I don't type ñ enough to memorize the code and I don't care enough to try a few in the ballpark until I find it.
Afaik most traffic anywhere on the internet is mobile where that shouldn't be an issue, no? When I type "quebec", it suggests both Québec and Quebec. So I put it to you that a majority of people simply don't know that the "correct" spelling needs the accent (and might even be slightly confused why their English keyboard would suggest French) and thus actively select the version without the accent, rather than it being inconvenient to type diacritics. Your Honour, I rest my case.
(I wouldn't bother with the accent either, even on my fancy physical keyboard with all the little bits and bobs)
I only use mobile internet when I have to but it is nice to have better access to some characters. I can't speak to others use habits but literacy rates are crumbling.
Accents are important for precision, but words too.
Québec and México are not part of North America?
Did you mean: New Maine and New Texas?
You are correct! I was undercaffienated.
You do understand that French and Spanish are spoken in North America right?
We, uh...we don't like, have 2 to choose from, you know. Just the one unaccented one.