Ñ orñ (Spanish:eñe[ˈeɲe]ⓘ) is a letter of the extendedLatin alphabet, formed by placing atilde (also referred to as avirgulilla in Spanish, in order to differentiate it from other diacritics, which are also calledtildes) on top of an upper- or lower-case⟨n⟩.[2] The origin dates back tomedieval Spanish, when the Latin digraph⟨nn⟩ began to be abbreviated using a single⟨n⟩ with a roughly wavy line above it,[3] and it eventually became part of theSpanish alphabet in the eighteenth century, when it was first formally defined.
Historically,⟨ñ⟩ arose as aligature of⟨nn⟩; the tilde wasshorthand for the second⟨n⟩, written over the first;[4] compareumlaut, of analogous origin. It is a letter in the Spanish alphabet that is used for many words—for example, the Spanish wordaño "year" (⟨anno⟩ inOld Spanish) derived fromLatin:annus. Other languages used themacron over an⟨n⟩ or⟨m⟩ to indicate simple doubling.
Already inmedieval Latin palaeography, the sign that in Spanish came to be calledvirgulilla ("little comma") was used over a vowel to indicate a following nasal consonant (⟨n⟩ or⟨m⟩) that had been omitted, as intãtus fortantus orquã forquam. This usage was passed on to other languages using the Latin alphabet although it was subsequently dropped by most. Spanish retained it, however, in some specific cases, particularly to indicate thepalatal nasal, the sound that is now spelt as⟨ñ⟩. The wordtilde comes from Spanish, derived by metathesis of the wordtítulo astidlo, this originally from LatinTITVLVS "title" or "heading"; comparecabildo with LatinCAPITULUM.[5]
From spellings ofanno abbreviated asaño, as explained above, the tilde was thenceforth transferred to the⟨n⟩ and kept as a useful expedient to indicate the new palatal nasal sound that Spanish had developed in that position:año. The sign was also adopted for the same palatal nasal in all other cases, even when it did not derive from an original⟨nn⟩, as inleña (from Latinligna) orseñor (from LatinSENIOR).
OtherRomance languages have different spellings for this sound:Italian andFrench use⟨gn⟩, a consonant cluster that had evolved from Latin, whereasOccitan andPortuguese chose⟨nh⟩ andCatalan⟨ny⟩ even though these digraphs had no etymological precedent.
WhenMorse code was extended to cover languages other than English, a sequence ( — — · — — ) was allotted for this character.
Although⟨ñ⟩ is used by other languages whose spellings were influenced by Spanish, it originated in Spanish and has become a distinctive symbol of the language's identity.[6][7]
InTetum, it was adopted to represent the same sound in Portuguese loanwords represented by⟨nh⟩, although this is also used in Tetum, as is⟨ny⟩, influenced byIndonesian.
InTagalog,Visayan, and otherPhilippine languages, most Spanish terms that include⟨ñ⟩ are respelled with⟨ny⟩. The conventional exceptions (with considerable variations) are proper names, which usually retain⟨ñ⟩ and their originalSpanish or Hispanicised spelling (Santo Niño,Parañaque,Mañalac,Malacañan). It iscollated as the 15th letter of theFilipino alphabet. Inold Filipino orthography, the letter was also used, along with⟨g⟩, to represent[ŋ] (except at the end of a word, when⟨ng⟩ would be used) if appropriate instead of a tilde, which originally spanned a sequence of⟨n⟩ and⟨g⟩ (as in⟨n͠g⟩), such aspan͠galan ("name"). That is because the old orthography was based on Spanish, and without the tilde,pangalan would have been pronounced with the sequence[ŋɡ] (thereforepang-GAlan). The form⟨ñg⟩ became a more common way to represent⟨n͠g⟩ until the early 20th century, mainly because it was more readily available in typesets than the tilde spanning both letters.
In theBreton language, itnasalises the preceding vowel, as inJañ/ʒã/, which corresponds to the French nameJean and has the same pronunciation.
It is used in a number ofEnglish terms of Spanish origin, such asjalapeño,piña colada,piñata, andEl Niño. The Spanish wordcañón, however, became naturalized ascanyon (though inBritish English it is occasionally speltcañon). Until the middle of the 20th century, adapting it asnn was more common in English, as in the phrase "Battle of Corunna"[citation needed]. Now, it is almost always left unmodified. The Society for the Advancement of Spanish Letters in the Anglo Americas (SASLAA) is the preeminent organization focused on promoting the permanent adoption of⟨ñ⟩ into the English language.[8]
In 1991, aEuropean Community report recommended the repeal of a regulation preventing the sale inSpain of computer products not supporting "all the characteristics of the Spanish writing system," claiming that it was aprotectionist measure against the principles of the free market. This would have allowed the distribution of keyboards without an "Ñ" key. TheReal Academia Española stated that the matter was a serious attack against the language. Nobel Prize winner in literatureGabriel García Márquez expressed his disdain over its elimination by saying: "The 'Ñ' is not an archaeological piece of junk, but just the opposite: a cultural leap of a Romance language that left the others behind in expressing with only one letter a sound that other languages continue to express with two."[11]
Among other forms of controversy are those pertaining to the anglicization ofSpanish surnames. The replacement of⟨ñ⟩ with another letter alters the pronunciation and meaning of a word or name, in the same manner that replacing any letter in a given word with another one would. For example,Peña is a common Spanish surname and acommon noun that means "rocky hill"; it is often anglicized asPena, changing the name to the Spanish word for "pity", often used in terms of sorrow.
WhenFederico Peña was first running formayor of Denver in 1983, theDenver Post printed his name without the tilde as "Pena." After he won the election, they began printing his name with the tilde. As Peña's administration had many critics, their objections were sometimes whimsically expressed as "ÑO."
Another news channel,TLN en Español, has⟨tlñ⟩, with⟨ñ⟩ taking the place of the expected⟨n⟩, as its logo.
As part ofApril Fool's Day, in 2013, Puerto Rican linguistics professor Aida Vergne[12] penned amock newspaper article stating that theRoyal Spanish Academy had opted to eliminate⟨ñ⟩ from Spanish, instead being replaced by the original⟨nn⟩ in Old Spanish.[13] As the Academy had previously eliminated letters such as⟨ch⟩ and⟨ll⟩,[14][15] such an allegation was taken seriously and occasionally the Academy has to resort to deny and clarify the allegation.[16]
⟨ñ⟩ may be used ininternationalized domain names, but it will have to be converted from Unicode toASCII usingPunycode during the registration process (i.e. from www.piñata.com to www.xn--piata-pta.com).[19]
