Daniel Yacob wrote:

> "Timherte Slaq", the consenus is that it does not have to be
> rendered differently from an inverted question mark. The use in
> Ethiopia and Eritrea (I forget the Tigrigna name, "Slaq Timherti"
> maybe) is to indicate sarcasm, that an unreal statement has been
> made. Helpful for children who aren't used to double meanings and
> reading between the lines. Sometimes used in poetry, mostly easily
> found in political cartoons.

So, in a sense, it can be considered the Ethiopic version of the ";-)"
smiley. I am very tempted to borrow this cute Ethiopic usage for my
e-mails, either neat "¡" or combined with nose and mouth "¡-)". The only
problem is that I have to switch to the Spanish keyboard each time I want to
be sarcastic¡

_ Marco