EDIT The inverted question mark in the Spanish language opens a question and is joined without space to its first word, e.g. ¿Cómo estás?

This character has been used as an officially acknowledged special character of Spanish typography since the 18th century.

 jsw  080330 

EDIT Used at the beginning of a sentence to open the question which is then closed with the traditional question mark.

Often ignored in quick typing for example during computer chats or in forums since the character is not easily accessible on the keyboard.

 jsw  jsw