(Credit: LATimes, screenshot)

tildesEdgar agreed with the reader, Jose Suarez, who wrote that “The ‘ñ’ is an official part of a major language, and word meaning changes if you don’t use it. ‘Peña’ means a big rock or a place of reunion; ‘Pena’ means shame. When you report about the meteorological phenomenon of El Niño, you don’t call it El Nino. Spanish (Español) should be taken seriously.”

According to Edgar, the Los Angeles Times’ style guide calls for the newspaper  to include tildes in “all proper nouns” as “appropriate.”

The sentiment mirrors that of Robert Buckman, who wrote a column for this site in March 2010 criticizing news outlets that fail to use the tilde.  Read Buckman’s column here.