Historically,⟨ñ⟩ arose as aligature of⟨nn⟩; the tilde wasshorthand for the second⟨n⟩, written over the first;[2] 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.[3]
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 has recently been chosen to represent the identity of the Spanish language.
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. 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.[4]
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."[7]
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[8] 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.[9] As the Academy had previously eliminated letters such as⟨ch⟩ and⟨ll⟩,[10][11] such an allegation was taken seriously and occasionally the Academy has to resort to deny and clarify the allegation.[12]
InUnicode⟨Ñ⟩ has the code U+00D1 (decimal 209) while⟨ñ⟩ has the code U+00F1 (decimal 241). Additionally, they can be generated by typingN orn followed by a combiningtilde modifier, ̃, U+0303, decimal 771.
⟨ñ⟩ has its own key in the Spanish and Latin American keyboard layouts (see the corresponding sections atkeyboard layout andTilde#Role of mechanical typewriters). The following instructions apply only to English-language keyboards.
OnAndroid devices, holdingN orn down on the keyboard makes entry of⟨Ñ⟩ and⟨ñ⟩ possible.
OnApple Macintosh operating systems (includingMac OS X), it can be typed by pressing and holding the Option key and then typingN, followed by typing eitherN orn.
On theiPhone andiPad, which use the AppleiOS operating system, the⟨ñ⟩ is accessed by holding down the⟨n⟩ key, which opens a menu (on an English-language keyboard). Apple'sMac OS X 10.7 Lion operating system also made the⟨ñ⟩ available in the same way.
The lowercase⟨ñ⟩ can be made in theMicrosoft Windows operating system by typingAlt+164 orAlt+0241 on the numeric keypad (with Num Lock turned on);[15] the uppercase⟨Ñ⟩ can be made withAlt+165 orAlt+0209.Character Map inWindows identifies the letter as "Latin Small/Capital Letter N With Tilde". A soft (not physical) Spanish-language keyboard is easily installed in Windows.
InMicrosoft Word,⟨ñ⟩ can be typed by pressing Control-Shift-Tilde (⟨~⟩) and then an⟨n⟩.
OnLinux it can be created by pressing Ctrl+Shift+U and then typing '00d1' or '00f1', followed by space or Ctrl to end the character code input. This produces⟨Ñ⟩ or⟨ñ⟩.
Another option (for any operating system) is to configure the system to use theUS-International keyboard layout, with which⟨ñ⟩ can be produced either by holdingAlt Gr and then pressingN, or by typing the tilde (⟨~⟩) followed by⟨n⟩.
Yet another option is to use acompose key (hardware-based or software-emulated). Pressing the compose key, then⟨~⟩, and then⟨n⟩ results in⟨ñ⟩. A capital⟨N⟩ can be substituted to produce⟨Ñ⟩, and in most cases the order of⟨~⟩ and⟨ñ⟩ can be reversed.
⟨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).[16]
InURLs (except for the domain name),⟨Ñ⟩ may be replaced by%C3%91, and⟨ñ⟩ by%C3%B1. This is not needed for newer browsers. The hex digits represent theUTF-8 encoding of⟨Ñ⟩ and⟨ñ⟩. This feature allows almost any Unicode character to be encoded, and it is considered important to support languages other than English.
^Note that this depends on locale. E.g. will generate⟨ń⟩ in some eastern European locales, and there is no alternative keystroke for⟨ñ⟩ in these locales. The same applies to uppercase⟨Ñ⟩.
