y a estas un testimonio de la presente escritura

00:13 Aug 1, 2016 

I didn't know anything about those changes to the rules of orthography; furthermore, I thought a tilde was the ñ and other diacritics were merely accents;

23:36 Jul 31, 2016 

That is what all of us over the age of about 25 were taught and it was unequivocally the case until 1999. But in the 1999 edition of its Ortografía, the Spanish Royal Academy radically changed the rule, to this: "Los demonstrativos este, ese, aquel, con sus femeninos y plurales, pueden llevar tilde cuando funcionan como pronombres. [...] No llevarán tilde si determinan a un nombre. [...] Solamente cuando se utilicen como pronombres y exista riesgo de ambigüedad se acentuarán para evitarla" (4.6.2, p. 49; emphasis mine). This muddied the pool; demonstrative adjectives still had to be unaccented, but demonstrative pronouns could now be unaccented unless this would produce ambiguity.

This remained the official rule for 11 years, until the 2010 edition of the Ortografía abandoned the second part and recommended that demonstrative pronouns should never be accented, even if ambiguity would result. That's now the position, though, as we've been saying, by no means everybody follows it.

Here again is the RAE's current statement, if you're interested:
http://www.rae.es/consultas/el-adverbio-solo-y-los-pronombre...

23:04 Jul 31, 2016 

..and the same for ese esa esos esas and ése ésa ésos ésas ; the accent alters the meaning. Without an accent they are demonstrative adjectives, ( this, that, these, those), with an accent they are demonstrative pronouns ( this one, that one, these ones, those ones).

22:48 Jul 31, 2016 

Apostrophes in contractions (Im, cant, isnt) may be in decline, but actually I think most people distinguish between texting (where apostrophes are perhaps omitted for convenience) and other kinds of writing. I think I read somewhere that research supports this.

22:41 Jul 31, 2016 

I can well believe it. By and large, only those of us who are professionally involved with language are aware of what the Academy says, and most people tend to carry on doing what they were taught at school, which is why "fué" and "dió" survived for so long.

Anyway, if anyone complains, remember to tell them that omitting these accents is only a recommendation, so you're free to disregard it.

Allegro: I can't see an abolish-the-apostrophe campaign making much headway. Attempts to reform English spelling are almost always ignored. It evolves, but by tacit consensus. Personally, like most people, I'm sentimentally attached to what I grew up with and would feel very uncomfortable dispensing with the apostrophe, but if it's going to happen then ultimately nobody can stop it. But actually the most notorious error, the so-called greengrocer's apostrophe (apple's and orange's), involves using too many rather than too few, and I would say that "it's" for "its" is more common than the other way round.

22:02 Jul 31, 2016 

In 2015 I published an extensive lexicon of Spanish-English legal terminology in which I followed the RAE’s 2010 spelling rules (no accents on “solo”, “estas”, etc.). I had a group of Spanish lawyers, judges and law professors who checked my work in different areas of Spanish law, and all of them inevitably mentioned that I “forgot” to accent words like “sólo” and “éstas”. I then realized that legal professionals are generally unaware of the 2010 spelling rules and considered the lack of accents in my manuscript as mistakes on the part of a non-native Spanish speaker. So at the last minute when the book was ready to go to press, I decided to revert to the old way, restoring all of the accents to the “solos” and “estas”, etc. in the manuscript before publication.

21:24 Jul 31, 2016 

One of my wife's university teachers (of English and Literature!) actually was in favour of abolishing the apostrophe in English !!!

21:05 Jul 31, 2016 

feling old all of a sudden :-(

Isn't it old people who refuse to move with the times?

21:03 Jul 31, 2016 

Me too. But this particular change, for some reason, has aroused a lot of opposition. It seems that quite a lot of people don't want to stop accenting éstas and sólo, and, as I say, some are actually making an issue of it. Who knows, the RAE may possibly backtrack on this point, or at least not turn its recommendation into a requirement. Which leaves us with a messy (though arguably healthy) situation in which people can do whatever they prefer.

Meanwhile, as Rebecca says, accents are in practice in decline. I've lost count of the number of university teachers I've heard complaining that students don't use them (texting is commonly blamed for this), and some are failing them in exams for it, but they may well be fighting a losing battle.

20:57 Jul 31, 2016 

the beloved Englisg apostrophe is almost an extinct species, or at least its correct usage (watch out Helena!!)

20:53 Jul 31, 2016 

I like(d) about Spanish is it's clear-cut rules.

In my experience, if a non-native speaker of Spanish doesn't write correctly, people tend to think it's because we don't know how to, even if we're texting an informal message.

20:42 Jul 31, 2016 

The accents on monosyllabic preterite forms (fue, dio, etc.) were abolished by the RAE (if I remember rightly) in 1959, but lots of people were still writing fué, dió, etc. thirty years and more later. Most people were still doing so when I started learning Spanish, some ten years after the ruling. Old habits die very hard.

The Academy's current position on demonstratives and solo is an improvement on its preceding interim position: that the accent was optional, but compulsory if its omission would produce ambiguity, which (if you take these things seriously) required prolonged cogitation as to whether a particular sentence could be ambiguous or not. It was easier just to carry on putting an accent. However, what they've now said is that they "recommend" not accenting these words: "a partir de ahora se podrá prescindir de la tilde en estas formas incluso en casos de ambigüedad. La recomendación general es, pues, la de no tildar nunca estas palabras." And there's a vocal sector openly defying the recommendation.
http://www.rae.es/consultas/el-adverbio-solo-y-los-pronombre...
http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2016/02/13/tildes-real-academia...

19:47 Jul 31, 2016 

I understand that accents were initially dropped from Portuguese -as being too bourgeois - after the 1975 'Carnation Revolution' in Portugal.

19:24 Jul 31, 2016 

In a few generations there may not be any accents left in Spanish--young texters never use them!

19:20 Jul 31, 2016 

At least it'll make texting easier. I find writing 'ó' between numbers particularly time-comsuming.

It would be great if they decided ¿ and ¡ were no longer necessary!

19:14 Jul 31, 2016 

You don't need to relearn your Spanish! I posted that just "for info." And most of my Spanish lawyer translation clients don't know about (or perhaps aren't interested in) the RAE's spelling reform, so I continue to write "sólo" and "éstas" so they won't correct my Spanish.

18:56 Jul 31, 2016 

My last Spanish class was in 2003 and I was taught that when 'estas' was a pronoun there was an accent over the 'e', and 'solo' had to be written with a 'tilde' when it meant 'solamente'.

I need to relearn my Spanish :-(

18:46 Jul 31, 2016 

After the RAE's 2010 spelling reform, "éstas" no longer has an accent: Eliminación de la tilde diacrítica en el adverbio solo y los pronombres demostrativos incluso en casos de posible ambigüedad
La palabra solo, tanto cuando es adverbio y equivale a solamente (Solo llevaba un par de monedas en el bolsillo) como cuando es adjetivo (No me gusta estar solo), así como los demostrativos este, ese y aquel, con sus femeninos y plurales, funcionen como pronombres (Este es tonto; Quiero aquella) o como determinantes (aquellos tipos, la chica esa), no deben llevar tilde según las reglas generales de acentuación, bien por tratarse de palabras llanas terminadas en vocal o en -s, bien, en el caso de aquel, por ser aguda y acabar en consonante distinta de n o s.
http://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Principales_novedades_...

18:07 Jul 31, 2016 

I translated the whole document as "certified copy of public deed."

18:06 Jul 31, 2016 

of providing an answer but 'testimonio' can be translated as (certified) copy.

http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/law_general/440...

17:57 Jul 31, 2016 

on the 'e' = éstas.

I will attach 'un testimonio de la presente escritura a éstas (las diligencias matrimoniales)'.