Letters used for crosswords (palavras cruzadas)

Question

I am the author of a software that lets users create crosswords. Part of that is testing whether a certain letter should be enabled for usage in a certain language.

For portuguese, this poses the question about the use of diacritics. Should any letters incorporating them show up in crosswords (Ç, Ã, ...)? I am not asking about the way Scrabble does it. Its policy on using non-standard letters is specific to their awarding of points and does not apply to my software.

Instead, if one encountered a crossword, let's say in a newspaper, would there be any letters allowed that are not part of the standard latin alphabet? Or, to rephrase that question, if a crossword held the words "informações" and "cruzados", would someone trying to solve it expect that the words could cross at the c/ç, or would they be distinct letters that never fit?

Are there other letters with diacritics that would be considered distinct in that sense? (I think all other cases are accents/tildes above vowels?)

Answer 1

From what I remember (none at hand right now to check) and from what I found on a quick online search, you mostly find one of three conventions:

1. completely drop diacritics from all words;
2. keep ç, ã, and õ in the words, as distinct symbols (from c, a, and o, resp.), and drop the other diacritics; and
3. keep all diacritics and distinguish letters with from those without them.

I'd say that #2 is (annoyingly) most common and #3 very rare, but that's personal opinion.

Answer 2

Welcome to PL. This is opinion based.

I'm not an expert in the creation of crosswords but I would avoid including such letters as "ç" or "ã" at a crossing point. Should I decide to use them, however, I'd make sure that the both vertical and horizontal words meeting at the "ç" or "ã" space really share those letters with diacritics. I also believe those who solve a puzzle in Portuguese won't overlook diacritics.