Are scare quotes used in other languages?

[gomipile]

I was looking at the Wikipedia article for scare quotes and I didn't see any reference to modern usage in languages other than English. Actually, the article never specifies that they are used in English, just that they are used.

Anyway, the reason I opened the article in the first place was to find out if scare quotes are used in Japanese, and I was also curious to see what, if any, languages other than English they are used in.

[halfeye]

I was looking at the Wikipedia article for scare quotes and I didn't see any reference to modern usage in languages other than English. Actually, the article never specifies that they are used in English, just that they are used.

Anyway, the reason I opened the article in the first place was to find out if scare quotes are used in Japanese, and I was also curious to see what, if any, languages other than English they are used in.

I don't know whether the old Japanese language used scare quotes, but if they did their orthography is so different that they wouldn't have used the quotation marks that European languages use. Current Japanese is being influenced by western languages to the point that the use of anything is "maybe".

There are many accent marks used in other languages, there are umlauts in germanic languages, inverted question marks, exclamation marks and cedilas in spanish, I think carets are mainly french, there are dozens of others in European originated languages, when you go to India and Arabia there are whole other text forms.

[CheesePirate]

I was also curious to see what, if any, languages other than English they are used in.

I can't help you with Japanese, but they are used in Norwegian (https://www.korrekturavdelingen.no/anforselstegn.htm):


Anførselstegn kan erstatte «såkalt» for å markere distanse eller forbehold

Førskolelæreren hadde ikke mye til overs for Hitchcocks «humor».



Quotation marks can replace "so-called" to mark distance or reservation

The preschool teacher didn't much care for Hitchcock's "humour".



They are used in Swedish (https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citattecken):


Citattecken används även för att markera ett ord där man vill fästa uppmärksamheten vid att själva ordet används på ett ovanligt sätt eller att ordet ges en betydelse det vanligtvis inte har, ibland med en ironisk underton:

”Bra” jobbat, du släppte just in grannkatten i huset.
Quotation marks are even used to mark a word where you want to direct attention to the word itself being used in an unusual manner or the word being given a meaning it doesn't usually have, sometimes with an ironic undertone:

"Good" job, you just let the neighbour's cat in the house.



They are used in Danish (https://sproget.dk/raad-og-regler/Retskrivningsregler/retskrivningsregler/a7-40-60/a7-58-anforselstegn):


(2) Ved forbehold
Ved hjælp af anførselstegn kan man tage forbehold over for brugen af ord eller sætninger:


Han har nu »studeret« i 11 år.
(2) Reservation
Using quotation marks one can show reservation towards the use of words or sentences:


He has now been "studying" for 11 years.



They are used in German (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anf%C3%BChrungszeichen):



Anführungszeichen können außerdem verwendet werden, um Wörter, Wortgruppen und Teile eines Textes oder Wortes hervorzuheben, zu denen man Stellung nehmen möchte, über die man eine Aussage machen will oder von deren Verwendung man sich – etwa ironisch oder durch die Unterlegung eines anderen Sinns – distanzieren möchte.


Quotation marks can also be used to highlight words, groups of words and parts of a text or a word about which you want to comment or make a statement, or whose use you want to distance yourself from - ironically or through a different underlying meaning.



They are used in Spanish (https://konpalabra.konradlorenz.edu.co/2016/11/el-uso-de-las-comillas.html):



4) Las comillas se usan dentro de un escrito para hacer énfasis en una palabra que requiere “cuidado” dentro de la oración que se escribe. Es decir, se trata de llamar la atención del lector en esta palabra para poder entender el mensaje que se expone de manera adecuada.

Ejemplo:

En cuanto a los graffitis, ver calles completamente arruinadas por esta clase de “arte” no hace más que destruir el potencial de belleza que ofrece y puede exponer la ciudad.

<snip> hay claramente ironía por parte del autor.


4) Quotation marks are used within a text to emphasize a word that requires "attention" within the sentence that is written. That is to say, it is about drawing the reader's attention to this word in order to properly understand the message that is being presented.

Example:

As for graffiti, seeing streets completely ruined by this kind of "art" does nothing more than destroy the potential for beauty that the city offers and can expose.

<snip> there is clearly irony on the part of the author.

[TwilightSandwic]

I know my mother tounge, Hebrew, uses scare qoutes.
But as for Japanese, I distinctly remember stumbling onto a Japanese fansite for western live-action shows which had an article explaining why folks in these shows would sometimes make air qoutes to convey sarcasm. And well, part of it is that Japanese uses square brackets for qoutation rather than the " symbol, but the article also went into detail explaining the whole logic of why using qoute marks would imply sarcasm or irony. So from that I'm assuming the concept of scare quotes isn't really a Thing in Japanese.

[Taffimai]

Adding to CheesePirate's list I can attest that they are used in Dutch (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aanhalingsteken#Bijzonder_woordgebruik):


Wegens zijn „ziekte” hoefde hij niet te werken.
Wat een interessante 'feiten' verkondigt die man.

Because of his "disease" he did not have to work.
What interesting 'facts' that man is proclaiming.

Note how both single and double quotation marks are used. There is no rule about the use of one versus the other, it seems to be down to personal preference of the writer.

They are also used in French (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillemet#Guillemets_d'ironie):


Freud a voulu bâtir une « science », et il n’y est pas parvenu ; il a voulu « prouver » que l’inconscient avait ses lois, sa logique intrinsèque, ses protocoles expérimentaux — mais, hélas, il a un peu (beaucoup ?) menti pour se parer des emblèmes de la scientificité.

Freud wanted to build a «science», and he has failed to do so; he wanted to «prove» that the unconscious mind had its own laws, intrinsic logic, experimental protocols - but, unfortunately, he lied a little (or a lot?) in order to furnish himself with the trappings of science.

[MoiMagnus]

As a French, I can confirm they are a thing in France.
They are literally called "ironic quotation marks".

[loky1109]

Russian answer: yes, we do.