Dead keys not working in Emacs 23 in MS Windows

Question

In any program I type á pressing the ´ + a (in sequence). When I do it in emacs I only get a. The dead key only acts when I type an space. For example, if I type:

´ + a + SPC

I get:

a´

when I expect:

á

Any ideas on why this may be happening? It only happens with emacs.

(This happens with an empty .emacs.)

Answer 1

Try pressing C-x 8 ' a. This is a way to enter a dead key no matter how the system is configured.

Many systems are configured in that way that they do not support dead keys. My X server uses the nodeadkeys XkbVariant. I do this because I enter more ofter a circumflex for an regular expression than for an French letter. On such a system C-x 8 can be used to get still a dead key.