This page discusses accent codes needed for most of the Western European Romance languages. See the Romanian page for information on that language.
The "Romance" languages are those languages which are directly descended from Latin. Although some Romance languages like Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese are national languages and spoken around the world, others are languages (or "dialects") spoken in different European countries which are related to the national languages, but with distinct grammars and cultural identities. These include Catalan and Galician from Spain, Occitan and Provençal from France, Walloon from Belgium, Rhaeto-Romance from Switzerland and Sardinian from Italy. See the complete Romance Language list below for moe details.
Fortunately, many of these languages share a common pool of accented vowels and special characters, so this page will list all the possible accented vowels and letters found in these languages (with the exception of Romanian and its near sisters).
See typing accents with ALT keys for more information. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.
Two nested data tables, vowels and consonants/punctuation
Alt codes for accented vowels Accent A E I O U Y Grave
(Cap)À
0192È
0200Ì
0204Ò
0210Ù
0217Grave (Lower) à
0224è
0232ì
0236ò
0242ù
0249Acute
(Cap)Á
0193É
0201Í
0205Ó
0211Ú
0218Ý
0221Acute (Lower) á
0225é
0233í
0237ó
0243ú
0250ý
0253Circumflex
(Cap)Â
0194Ê
0202Î
0206Ô
0212Û
0219Circumflex (Lower) â
0226ê
0234î
0238ô
0244û
0251Tilde
(Cap)Ã
0195-- Ñ
0209Õ
0213-- Tilde (Lower) ã
0227-- ñ
0241õ
0245-- Umlaut
(Cap)Ä
0196Ë
0203Ï
0207Ö
0214Ü
0220Ÿ
0159Umlaut (Lower) ä
0228ë
0235ï
0239ö
0246ü
0252ÿ
0225
Additional Characters
Vowels/Cons/PunctÅ ALT+0197 (caps) å ALT+0229 (lower) Œ ALT+0140 (caps) œ ALT+0156 (lower) Ç ALT+0199 (caps) ç ALT+0231 (lower) Ñ ALT+0209 (caps) ñ ALT+0241 (lower) ¿ ALT+0191 ¡ ALT+0161 « ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote) » ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote) € ALT+0128
In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site.
This list is organized by Accent type. For the Template, the symbol "V" means type any vowel. If a vwel is not listed, then you need to use the ALT codes from the previous section.
Example 1: To type the letter ó - Type the apostrophe key ('), then O. For Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE NOTES Acute á Á ', V ' = apostrophe key Circumflex â Â SHIFT+^, V Grave à À `, V ` = left single quote Tilde ã Ã SHIFT+~,V Umlaut ë Ë ", V " = quote key Example 1: To type lower case ó - Type the apostrophe key ('), then O. For capital Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.
For these codes, you must make sure you use the Alt key on the right side of the keyboard. Note that there is no equivalent for the joined O-E.
Vowels/Cons/Punct Å Shift+RightAlt +W å RightAlt + W Ç Shift+RightAlt + < ç RightAlt + < « RightAlt+[ » RightAlt+] € Control+RightAlt+5
For the Template, the symbol "V" means type any vowel. The format is to hold the first two keys down simultaneously, release, then
type the vowel you wish to be accented.
Note: You should use the Dutch Keyboard if you need to type accents on the letter y.
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE Acute á Á Option+E, V Circumflex â Â Option+I, V Grave à À Option+`, V Tilde ã Ã Option+N, V Umlaut ë Ë Option+U, V
Example 1: To input the lower case ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the capital Ó, hold down the Option key, then the E key. Release all three keys then type capital O.
Character Description Å, å Option+A
Shift+Option+AŒ, œ Option+Q
Shift+Option+Q (O E ligature)Ç, ç Option+C
Shift+Option+C¡, ¿ Option+1
Shift+Option+?«, » Option+\
Shift+Option+\€ Shift+Control+2 (May not work for older System 9 fonts)
If you are working with a Unicode aware application such as TextEdit Text Edit (free with OS X ), Dreamweaver or Netscape 7 Composer /Mozilla Composer you can activate the Unicode Hex Input keyboard and use the following option codes along with the older accent codes.
| Accented Y Hex Codes | |
| Ý | Option+00DD(Cap Acute) |
|---|---|
| ý | Option+00FD(Lower Acute) |
| Ÿ | Option+0178(Cap Umlaut) |
| ÿ | Option+00FF (Lower Umlaut) |
Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags. All Romance language pages (except for Romanian), can be encoded as
Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page. See the table below for a list of languages with the name, native name, language code and notes. The list is grouped by language family starting from France and ending in Italy. The Baltic Romance languages such as Romanian are not included.
Note: Not all languages have a ISO-639 language code.
Romance Languages by Region (Go to Entity Codes) Language/Branch Name Code Native Name Branch Notes Langue D'Oïl Branch Language family of Northern Franch which includes French and its relatives French fr Français Langue D’oïl Old French is language code fro and Middle French is frm. Canadian French fr-CA Quebecois Langue D’oïl French Canadian has diverged from standard French, partly because of British influence. Franco-Provençal fp Francoprovençal Langue D’oïl Spoken towards the south, but distinct from Occitan (Langue D'oc) Walloon wa Walon Langue D’oïl Derived from an older dialect French and spoken in Belgium. Not the same as Belgian French. Other Langue D'Oïl
Languagesroa Cajun French, Zarphatic (Judeo-French), Jérrais (Jersey) Langue D’oïl Occitan/Langue d'Oc
Branchoc A set of related languages in Southern France. Includes Gascon, Provençal, Auvergnat, Limousin and Languedocien Iberian
BranchThe languages of Spain of Portugal and their descenants Spanish es Español Iberian Portuguese pt Português Iberian Aragonese an Aragonés Iberian Aragon (Spain) Asturian/Leon au Asturianu Iberian Asturia (Spain) Catalan ca Català Iberian Northeast Spain, including Barcelona plus France Valencian ca Valencià Iberian Close relative of Catalan. Galician gl Galego Iberian Galicia (northwest Spain). Closely related to Portuguese Ladino/Judeo-Spanish ly Ladino Iberian Spanish of Jewish community (expelled in 1490's) Gallo-Italian
Branchroa The languages of Northern Italy which are a separate branch from the other Italian dialects. Includes Venetian, Piedmontese, Ligurian, Lombard. Italian
BranchThe languages of Southern Italy. Often called dialects, many forms are not understood by other speakers so are actually distinct languages. Italian it Italiano Italian Standard Italian is based on language of Florence (Tuscany) Other Italian
Branch Languagesroa Calabrese/Napulitano, Silicilian, Italkian (Judeo-Italian), Dalmatian (Istriot) from Yugoslavia Italian Sardinian
BranchA seprate branch of Romance which branched off directly from Latin. Sardinian sc Sardu Sardinian Has multiple dialects Corsican co Corsu Italian Language(s) of Corsica. Southern Corsican is more like Sardinian. Rhaeto-Romance
Branchrm Retorumantsch. Related Romance languages of Switzerland. Also known as Romansh and Rhaetian. Rheto Friulian fu Furlan Rheto Southern Switzerland Ladin ld Ladin Rheto Southern Switzerland Rumantsch rm Rumantsch Rheto Southern Switzerland
Some groupings, especially those in Italy, may be disputed.
Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type caffè you would type caffè.
The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because è is number 232, caffè can also be used to input caffè. These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt codes listed above.
| Accent | A | E | I | O | U | Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grave &Vgrave; (Cap) |
À À (192) |
È È (200) |
Ì Ì (204) |
Ò Ò (210) |
Ù Ù (217) |
|
| Grave (Lower) | à à (224) |
è è (232) |
ì ì (236) |
ò ò (242) |
ù ù (249) |
|
| Acute &Vacute; (Cap) |
Á Á (193) |
É É (201) |
Í Í (205) |
Ó Ó (211) |
Ú Ú (218) |
Ý Ý (221) |
| Acute (Lower) | á á (225) |
é é (233) |
í í (237) |
ó ó (243) |
ú ú (250) |
ý ý (253) |
| Circumflex &Vcirc; (Cap) |
  (194) |
Ê Ê (202) |
Î Î (206) |
Ô Ô (212) |
Û Û (219) |
|
| Circumflex (Lower) | â â (226) |
ê ê (234) |
î î (238) |
ô ô (244) |
û û (251) |
|
| Tilde &Vtilde; (Cap) |
à à (195) |
-- | Ñ Ñ (209) |
Õ Õ (213) |
-- | |
| Tilde (Lower) | ã ã (227) |
-- | ñ ñ (241) |
õ õ (245) |
-- | |
| Umlaut &Vuml; (Cap) |
Ä Ä (196) |
Ë Ë (203) |
Ï Ï (207) |
Ö Ö (214) |
Ü Ü (220) |
Ÿ Ÿ (Yuml;)* |
| Umlaut (Lower) | ä ä (228) |
ë ë (235) |
ï ï (239) |
ö ö (246) |
ü ü (252) |
Ÿ Ÿ (255) |
| SYMBOL | NAME | CODE | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¡ | Upside-down exclamation point. | ¡ (161) | |
| ¿ | Upside-down question mark. | ¿ (191) | |
| Ç,ç | French C cedille (caps/lowercase) | Ç (199) ç (231) |
|
| Œ,œ | French OE ligature (caps/lowercase) | Œ œ |
œ and Œ have been proposed, but are not supported œ = œ Œ = Œ |
| Å,å | A ring, Angstrom sign (caps/lowercase) | Å (197) å (230) |
Used in Walloon (Belgium) |
| € | Euro Symbol | € (--) | |
| « » | Spanish style double angle quote mark. | « (171) » (187) |
|
| ‹ › | Spanish style single angle quote mark. | ‹ › |
Entity codes not supported in Netscape 4.7. |
