Ñ
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox grapheme Template:Latin alphabet navbox
Ñ or ñ (Template:Langx Template:IPA) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, formed by placing a tilde (also referred to as a Template:Lang in Spanish, in order to differentiate it from other diacritics, which are also called Template:Lang) on top of an upper- or lower-case Template:Vr.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The origin dates back to medieval Spanish, when the Latin digraph Template:Vr began to be abbreviated using a single Template:Vr with a roughly wavy line above it,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and it eventually became part of the Spanish alphabet in the eighteenth century, when it was first formally defined.
Since then, it has been adopted by other languages, such as Galician, Asturian, the Aragonese, Basque, Chavacano, several Philippine languages (especially Filipino and the Bisayan group), Chamorro, Guarani, Quechua, Mapudungun, Mandinka, Papiamento, and the Tetum. It also appears in the Latin transliteration of Tocharian and many Indian languages, where it represents Template:IPAblink or Template:IPA (similar to the Template:Angbr in canyon). Additionally, it was adopted in Crimean Tatar, Kazakh, ALA-LC romanization for Turkic languages, the Common Turkic Alphabet, Nauruan, and romanized Quenya, where it represents the phoneme Template:IPAblink (like the Template:Angbr in wing). It has also been adopted in both Breton and Rohingya, where it indicates the nasalization of the preceding vowel.
Unlike many other letters that use diacritics (such as Template:Vr in Catalan and Spanish and Template:Vr in Catalan), Template:Vr in Spanish, Galician, Basque, Asturian, Leonese, Guarani and Filipino is considered a letter in its own right, has its own name (Spanish: Template:Wikt-lang), and its own place in the alphabet (after Template:Vr). Its alphabetical independence is similar to the Germanic Template:Vr, which came from a doubled Template:Vr.
History
It was engraved in Alhambra after Reconquista by the Catholic Monarchs, meaning that both Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon were equivalent in power ("Tanto monta, monta tanto, Isabel como Fernando").
Historically, Template:Vr arose as a ligature of Template:Vr; the tilde was shorthand for the second Template:Vr, written over the first;<ref>Buitrago, A., Torijano, J. A.: "Diccionario del origen de las palabras". Espasa Calpe, S. A., Madrid, 1998. Template:In lang</ref> compare umlaut, of analogous origin. It is a letter in the Spanish alphabet that is used for many words—for example, the Spanish word Template:Lang "year" (Template:Vr in Old Spanish) derived from Template:Langx. Other languages used the macron over an Template:Vr or Template:Vr to indicate simple doubling.
Already in medieval Latin palaeography, the sign that in Spanish came to be called Template:Lang ("little comma") was used over a vowel to indicate a following nasal consonant (Template:Vr or Template:Vr) that had been omitted, as in tãtus for tantus or quã for quam. 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 the palatal nasal, the sound that is now spelt as Template:Vr. The word tilde comes from Spanish, derived by metathesis of the word título as tidlo, this originally from Latin TITVLVS "title" or "heading"; compare cabildo with Latin CAPITULUM.<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref>
From spellings of anno abbreviated as año, as explained above, the tilde was thenceforth transferred to the Template:Vr 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 Template:Vr, as in Template:Lang (from Latin ligna) or Template:Lang (from Latin SENIOR).
Other Romance languages have different spellings for this sound: Italian and French use Template:Vr, a consonant cluster that had evolved from Latin, whereas Occitan and Portuguese chose Template:Vr and Catalan Template:Vr even though these digraphs had no etymological precedent.
When Morse code was extended to cover languages other than English, a sequence ( — — · — — ) was allotted for this character.
Although Template:Vr 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cross-linguistic usage
In Spanish it represents a palatal nasal. This is also the case of Philippine languages, Aymara, Quechua, Mapudungún, Guarani, Basque, Chamorro, Leonese, Yavapai, and Template:Citation needed span, whose orthographies have some basis in that of Spanish. Many languages of Senegal also use it in the same way. Senegal is unique among countries of West Africa in using this letter.
It also represents a palatal nasal in Galician and Uruguayan Portuguese.
In Tetum, it was adopted to represent the same sound in Portuguese loanwords represented by Template:Vr, although this is also used in Tetum, as is Template:Vr, influenced by Indonesian.
In Tagalog, Visayan, and other Philippine languages, most Spanish terms that include Template:Vr are respelled with Template:Vr. The conventional exceptions (with considerable variations) are proper names, which usually retain Template:Vr and their original Spanish or Hispanicised spelling (Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang). It is collated as the 15th letter of the Filipino alphabet. In old Filipino orthography, the letter was also used, along with Template:Vr, to represent Template:IPAblink (except at the end of a word, when Template:Vr would be used) if appropriate instead of a tilde, which originally spanned a sequence of Template:Vr and Template:Vr (as in Template:Vr), such as pan͠galan ("name"). That is because the old orthography was based on Spanish, and without the tilde, pangalan would have been pronounced with the sequence Template:IPA (therefore pang-GAlan). The form Template:Vr became a more common way to represent Template:Vr until the early 20th century, mainly because it was more readily available in typesets than the tilde spanning both letters.
It is also used to represent the velar nasal in Crimean Tatar and Nauruan. In Malay, the Congress Spelling System (1957–1972) formerly used it for Template:IPA before Template:IPA. In Turkmen, it was used for Template:IPA until 1999. In Latin-script writing of the Tatar language and Lule Sámi language, Template:Vr is sometimes used as a substitute for ꞑ, which is not available on many computer systems. In addition to Tatar, Template:Vr represents Template:IPA in the Common Turkic Alphabet.
In the Breton language, it nasalises the preceding vowel, as in Template:Lang Template:IPA, which corresponds to the French name Template:Lang and has the same pronunciation.
It is used in a number of English terms of Spanish origin, such as jalapeño, piña colada, piñata, and El Niño. The Spanish word cañón, however, became naturalized as canyon (though in British English it is occasionally spelt cañon). Until the middle of the 20th century, adapting it as nn was more common in English, as in the phrase "Battle of Corunna"Template: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 Template:Vr into the English language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Cultural significance
Template:Vr has come to represent the identity of the Spanish language. Latin publisher Bill Teck labeled Hispanic culture and its influence on the United States "Generation Ñ" and later started a magazine with that name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Organizations such as the Instituto Cervantes and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists have adopted the letter as their mark for Hispanic heritage. It was used in the Spanish Republican Air Force for aircraft identification. The circumstances surrounding the crash of serial 'Ñ' Potez 540 plane that was shot down over the Sierra de Gúdar range of the Sistema Ibérico near Valdelinares inspired French writer André Malraux to write the novel L'Espoir (1937), translated into English as Man's Hope and made into the movie named Espoir: Sierra de Teruel.<ref>Forging Man's Fate in Spain, The Nation, 20 March 1937</ref>
In 1991, a European Community report recommended the repeal of a regulation preventing the sale in Spain of computer products not supporting "all the characteristics of the Spanish writing system," claiming that it was a protectionist measure against the principles of the free market. This would have allowed the distribution of keyboards without an "Ñ" key. The Real Academia Española stated that the matter was a serious attack against the language. Nobel Prize winner in literature Gabriel 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."<ref name=GGM>Template:Cite web</ref>
Among other forms of controversy are those pertaining to the anglicization of Spanish surnames. The replacement of Template:Vr 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 a common noun that means "rocky hill"; it is often anglicized as Pena, changing the name to the Spanish word for "pity", often used in terms of sorrow.
When Federico Peña was first running for mayor of Denver in 1983, the Denver 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."
Since 2011, CNN's Spanish-language news channel incorporates a new logo wherein a tilde is placed over both Template:Vr.
Another news channel, TLN en Español, has Template:Vr, with Template:Vr taking the place of the expected Template:Vr, as its logo.
As part of April Fool's Day, in 2013, Puerto Rican linguistics professor Aida Vergne<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> penned a mock newspaper article stating that the Royal Spanish Academy had opted to eliminate Template:Vr from Spanish, instead being replaced by the original Template:Vr in Old Spanish.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As the Academy had previously eliminated letters such as Template:Vr and Template:Vr,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> such an allegation was taken seriously and occasionally the Academy has to resort to deny and clarify the allegation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Google Doodle for 23 April 2021 celebrated Template:Vr as part of UN Spanish Language Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Computer usage
Unicode
Template:Vr has its own key in the Spanish and Latin American keyboard layouts (see the corresponding sections at keyboard layout and Tilde#Role of mechanical typewriters). (For other keyboards, see Unicode input).
Use in URLs
Template:Vr may be used in internationalized domain names, but it will have to be converted from Unicode to ASCII using Punycode during the registration process (i.e. from www.piñata.com to www.xn--piata-pta.com).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
Other symbols for the palatal nasal
- Gn (digraph)
- Nh (digraph)
- Nj (letter)
- Ny (digraph)
- Ɲ
- Ń
- Њ
- Ň
- [[Palatal nasal|Template:IPA (IPA symbol)]]