<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Matthew,<DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>Long vowel notation is a problem that has never been resolved, partly because of the different communities involved. Nahua writers have never given importance to marking vowel length (except those who work for linguists). The few colonial texts which show vowel length use a macron. And today only professionals working on language documentation projects consider it important, which it is for that purpose (they tend to use a semi-colon). </DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>So the question is, Why do you want to show long vowels in your file? If it's for reference, that's fine. If it's for everyday writing, than neither semicolons nor capital letters will work, because they are used for other purposes. I like to use macrons for language documentation because of their tradition, but as you imply, they come out as rubbish when most people open the file. </DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>At this time I don't think it's possible to come up with an answer that all participants will embrace.</DIV><DIV>John</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">John Sullivan, Ph.D.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tacuba 152, int. 47</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Centro Histórico</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Zacatecas, Zac. 98000</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">México</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Oficina: +52 (492) 925-3415</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Fax: +52 (492) 925-3416</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Domicilio: +52 (492) 768-6048</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Celular: +52 (492) 118-0854</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:idiez@mac.com">idiez@mac.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">www.idiez.org.mx<SPAN></SPAN><SPAN></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>