View source for Ñ

{{Short description|Latin letter N with tilde above}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=Eñe
|letter=Ñ ñ
|script=[[Latin script]]
|type=[[Alphabet]] 
|typedesc=ic 
|language=[[Spanish language]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rae.es/dpd/ñ |title=Ñ |website=Diccionario panhispánico de dudas |publisher=Real Academia Española (RAE) |date=2025-07-23 |access-date=2025-07-30}}</ref>
|phonemes=[{{IPA link|ɲ}}]                                                                                                                                    
[{{IPA link|ŋ}}]
|unicode=U+00D1, U+00F1
|alphanumber=15
|number=
|fam1=<hiero>I10</hiero>
|fam2=[[File:Proto-semiticN-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Nun]]
|fam3=[[File:Protonun.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Caanite Nun]]
|fam4=[[File:Phoenician_nun.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Nun]]
|fam5=[[File:EtruscanN-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px]]
|fam6=[[File:Greek_Nu_01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Early Greek Ny]]
|fam7=[[Nu (letter)|Ν ν]]
|fam8=[[𐌍]]
|fam9=[[N]]
|usageperiod=~1000 to present
|equivalents=[[Gn (digraph)|gn]] (French, Italian)<br>[[Nh (digraph)|Nh]] (Portuguese, Occitan, Vietnamese)<br>[[Ny (digraph)|ny]] (Catalan, Aragonese, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Filipino)
|associates=
|direction=Left-to-Right
}}
{{Latin alphabet navbox||sound={{IPA|[ɲ]}}}}

'''Ñ''' or '''ñ''' ({{langx|es|eñe}} {{IPA|es|ˈeɲe||Letter ñ es es.flac}}) is a letter of the extended [[Latin alphabet]], formed by placing a [[tilde]] (also referred to as a {{lang|es|virgulilla}} in Spanish, in order to differentiate it from other diacritics, which are also called {{lang|es|tildes}}) on top of an upper- or lower-case {{vr|n}}.<ref>{{Cite web|publisher= [[Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española]] (ASALE)|title=virgulilla {{!}} Diccionario de la lengua española|url=https://dle.rae.es/virgulilla|access-date=23 April 2021|website=«Diccionario de la lengua española» – Edición del Tricentenario|language=es}}</ref> The origin dates back to [[medieval Spanish]], when the Latin digraph {{vr|nn}} began to be abbreviated using a single {{vr|n}} with a roughly wavy line above it,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.rae.es/dpd/ñ |title=Ñ |website=Diccionario panhispánico de dudas |publisher=Real Academia Española (RAE) |date=2025-07-23 |access-date=2025-07-30}}</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 alphabet|Galician]], [[Asturian alphabet|Asturian]], the [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]], [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Chavacano]], several [[Languages of the Philippines|Philippine languages]] (especially [[Filipino language|Filipino]] and the [[Bisayan languages|Bisayan]] group), [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]], [[Guarani language|Guarani]], [[Quechua alphabet|Quechua]], [[Mapudungun alphabet|Mapudungun]], [[Mandinka language|Mandinka]], [[Papiamento orthography|Papiamento]], and the [[Tetum alphabet|Tetum]]. It also appears in the Latin transliteration of [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]] and many [[Languages of India|Indian languages]], where it represents {{IPAblink|ɲ}} or {{IPA|[nʲ]}} (similar to the {{angbr|ny}} in ca'''ny'''on). Additionally, it was adopted in [[Crimean Tatar language|Crimean Tatar]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[ALA-LC romanization|ALA-LC romanization for Turkic languages]], the [[Common Turkic Alphabet]], [[Nauruan language|Nauruan]], and romanized [[Quenya]], where it represents the phoneme {{IPAblink|ŋ}} (like the {{angbr|ng}} in wi'''ng'''). It has also been adopted in both [[Breton language|Breton]] and [[Rohingya language|Rohingya]], where it indicates the [[nasalization]] of the preceding vowel.

Unlike many other letters that use [[diacritic]]s (such as {{vr|[[ü]]}} in [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and {{vr|[[ç]]}} in [[Catalan language|Catalan]]), {{vr|ñ}} in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Galician language|Galician]], [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Asturian language|Asturian]], [[Leonese language|Leonese]], [[Guarani language|Guarani]] and [[Filipino language|Filipino]] is considered a letter in its own right, has its own name (Spanish: ''{{Wikt-lang|es|eñe}}''), and its own [[Alphabetical order|place in the alphabet]] (after {{vr|n}}). Its alphabetical independence is similar to the Germanic {{vr|[[w]]}}, which came from a doubled {{vr|[[v]]}}.

==History==
[[File:Alhambra Tato mota.jpg|thumb|340px|In medieval times, {{vr|~}} was a shorthand for an {{vr|n}}. Thus, this inscription is read "Tanto monta" ("it amounts as much").<br /> 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, {{vr|ñ}} arose as a [[Typographic ligature|ligature]] of {{vr|nn}}; the tilde was [[shorthand]] for the second {{vr|n}}, written over the first;<ref>Buitrago, A., Torijano, J. A.: "Diccionario del origen de las palabras". Espasa Calpe, S. A., Madrid, 1998. {{in lang|es}}</ref> compare [[umlaut (diacritic)|umlaut]], of analogous origin. It is a letter in the Spanish alphabet that is used for many words—for example, the Spanish word {{lang|es|año}} "year" ({{vr|anno}} in [[Old Spanish]]) derived from {{langx|la|annus}}. Other languages used the [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] over an {{vr|n}} or {{vr|m}} to indicate simple doubling.

Already in [[medieval Latin]] palaeography, the sign that in Spanish came to be called {{lang|es|virgulilla}} ("little comma") was used over a vowel to indicate a following nasal consonant ({{vr|n}} or {{vr|m}}) 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 {{vr|ñ}}. The word ''tilde'' comes from Spanish, derived by metathesis of the word ''título'' as ''tidlo'', this originally from Latin <small>TITVLVS</small> "title" or "heading"; compare ''cabildo'' with Latin <small>CAPITULUM</small>.<ref>{{Cite OED|tilde}}</ref>

From spellings of ''anno'' abbreviated as ''año'', as explained above, the tilde was thenceforth transferred to the {{vr|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 {{vr|nn}}, as in {{lang|es|leña}} (from Latin ''ligna'') or {{lang|es|señor}} (from Latin <small>SENIOR</small>).

Other [[Romance languages]] have different spellings for this sound: [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[French language|French]] use {{vr|gn}}, a consonant cluster that had evolved from Latin, whereas [[Occitan language|Occitan]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] chose {{vr|nh}} and [[Catalan language|Catalan]] {{vr|ny}} 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 {{vr|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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-25 |title=Five fascinating facts you didn't know about the letter Ñ in Spanish |url=https://www.thelocal.es/20200625/five-fascinating-facts-you-didnt-know-about-the-letter-in-spanish |access-date=2025-11-01 |website=The Local Spain |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Why That Squiggly Mark Over the Spanish Ñ? |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/where-did-the-n-come-from-3078184 |access-date=2025-11-01 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref>

== Cross-linguistic usage ==
In Spanish it represents a [[palatal nasal]]. This is also the case of [[Languages of the Philippines|Philippine languages]], [[Aymara language|Aymara]], [[Quechua language|Quechua]], [[Mapudungún]], [[Guarani language|Guarani]], [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Chamorro language|Chamorro]], [[Leonese language|Leonese]], [[Yavapai language|Yavapai]], and {{citation needed span|date=January 2024|text=[[Iñupiaq language|Iñupiaq]]|reason=The other examples are all languages spoken in areas controlled by Spain at one point, but any direct connection between Iñupiaq and Spanish orthography isn't obvious.}}, 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 language|Galician]] and [[Uruguayan Portuguese]].

In [[Tetum language|Tetum]], it was adopted to represent the same sound in Portuguese loanwords represented by {{vr|nh}}, although this is also used in Tetum, as is {{vr|ny}}, influenced by [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]].

In [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Visayan languages|Visayan]], and other [[Languages of the Philippines|Philippine languages]], most Spanish terms that include {{vr|ñ}} are respelled with {{vr|ny}}. The conventional exceptions (with considerable variations) are proper names, which usually retain {{vr|ñ}} and their original [[Spanish language in the Philippines|Spanish]] or Hispanicised spelling ({{lang|es|[[Santo Niño de Cebú|Santo Niño]]}}, {{lang|es|[[Parañaque]]}}, {{lang|es|[[Bamboo Mañalac|Mañalac]]}}, {{lang|es|[[Malacañang Palace|Malacañan]]}}). It is [[Alphabetical order|collated]] as the 15th letter of the [[Filipino alphabet]]. In [[Filipino orthography#Adoption of the Latin script|old Filipino orthography]], the letter was also used, along with {{vr|g}}, to represent {{IPAblink|ŋ}} (except at the end of a word, when {{vr|ng}} would be used) if appropriate instead of a tilde, which originally spanned a sequence of {{vr|n}} and {{vr|g}} (as in {{vr|n͠g}}), 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 {{IPA|[ŋɡ]}} (therefore ''pang-GAlan''). The form {{vr|ñg}} became a more common way to represent {{vr|n͠g}} 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 language|Crimean Tatar]] and [[Nauruan language|Nauruan]]. In [[Malay language|Malay]], the [[Congress Spelling System]] (1957–1972) formerly used it for {{IPA|/ŋ/}} before {{IPA|/g/}}. In [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]], it was used for {{IPA|/ŋ/}} until 1999. In [[Jaꞑalif|Latin-script writing]] of the [[Tatar language]] and [[Lule Sámi|Lule Sámi language]], {{vr|ñ}} is sometimes used as a substitute for [[n with descender|ꞑ]], which is not available on many computer systems. In addition to Tatar, {{vr|ñ}} represents {{IPA|/ŋ/}} in the [[Common Turkic Alphabet]].

In the [[Breton language]], it [[nasal vowel|nasalises]] the preceding vowel, as in {{lang|br|Jañ}} {{IPA|/ʒã/}}, which corresponds to the French name {{lang|fr|Jean}} and has the same pronunciation.

It is used in a number of [[English (language)|English]] terms of Spanish origin, such as ''[[jalapeño]]'', ''[[piña colada]]'', ''[[piñata]]'', and ''[[El Niño-Southern Oscillation|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]]"{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}. 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 {{vr|ñ}} into the English language.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eñe Para English |url=https://xn--eeparaenglish-ikb.org/ |website=Eñe Para English |publisher=Society for the Advancement of Spanish Letters in the Anglo Americas |access-date=28 May 2020}}</ref>

== Cultural significance ==
[[File:Potez 540-.JPG|thumb|Serial letter 'Ñ' [[Potez 540]] plane of the Spanish Republican Air Force]]
{{vr|ñ}} 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>{{cite web|url=http://www.generation-n.com|title=Generation-Ñ|publisher=Generation-n.com|access-date=12 October 2014|archive-date=24 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024072921/http://generation-n.com/|url-status=dead}}</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 [[protectionism|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>{{cite web|url=http://blog.pucp.edu.pe/item/16494 |title=El Triunfo De La Ñ – Afirmación De Hispanoamerica &#124; Blog De Luis Durán Rojo |publisher=Blog.pucp.edu.pe |access-date=31 May 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Piñata.svg|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|left|upright| {{vr|ñ}} used in the word {{lang|es|[[piñata]]}}]]
Among other forms of controversy are those pertaining to the anglicization of [[Spanish naming customs|Spanish surnames]]. The replacement of {{vr|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 (surname)|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 en Español|CNN's Spanish-language news channel]] incorporates a new logo wherein a tilde is placed over both {{vr|n}}.

Another news channel, [[TLN en Español]], has {{vr|tlñ}}, with {{vr|ñ}} taking the place of the expected {{vr|n}}, as its logo.

As part of [[April Fools' Day|April Fool's Day]], in 2013, Puerto Rican linguistics professor Aida Vergne<ref>{{Cite news |title=Aida Vergne |language=es |work=[[El Nuevo Día]] |url=https://www.elnuevodia.com/autor/aida-vergne/ |access-date=2022-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118165023/http://www.elnuevodia.com/autor/aida-vergne/ |archive-date=2021-01-18 |issn=1043-7614}}</ref> penned a [[List of April Fools' Day jokes#Newspapers and magazines|mock newspaper article]] stating that the [[Royal Spanish Academy]] had opted to eliminate {{vr|ñ}} from Spanish, instead being replaced by the original {{vr|nn}} in Old Spanish.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Vergne |first=Aida |date=2013-04-01 |title=La Real Academia de la Lengua Española elimina la ñ del alfabeto |language=es |trans-title=The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language eliminates the ñ from the alphabet |work=Metro PR |url=https://www.metro.pr/pr/sin-categoria/2013/04/01/real-academia-lengua-espanola-elimina-n-alfabeto.html#:~:text=La%20Real%20Academia%20de%20la%20Lengua%20Espa%C3%B1ola%2C%20a%20trav%C3%A9s%20de,emblem%C3%A1tica%20de%20todas%3A%20la%20%C3%B1 |access-date=2022-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615221131/https://www.metro.pr/pr/sin-categoria/2013/04/01/real-academia-lengua-espanola-elimina-n-alfabeto.html |archive-date=2017-06-15}}</ref> As the Academy had previously eliminated letters such as {{vr|[[Ch (digraph)|ch]]}} and {{vr|[[ll]]}},<ref>{{Cite news |date=1994-04-30 |title=Spanish Alphabet Loses Two Letters |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-30-mn-52183-story.html |access-date=2022-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311193341/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-30-mn-52183-story.html |archive-date=2022-03-11 |issn=2165-1736}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Malkin |first=Elisabeth |date=2010-11-25 |title=Rebelling Against Spain, This Time With Words |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/world/europe/26spanish.html |access-date=2022-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104164352/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/world/europe/26spanish.html |archive-date=2022-01-04 |issn=1553-8095}}</ref> such an allegation was taken seriously and occasionally the Academy has to resort to deny and clarify the allegation.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-06-23 |title=Noticias falsas, ¿también sobre nuestro idioma? |trans-title=Fake news, also about our language? |url=https://medium.com/juventud-t%C3%A9cnica/noticias-falsas-tambi%C3%A9n-sobre-nuestro-idioma-cca99a8251a3#:~:text=Es%20lamentable%20que,6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117060047/https://medium.com/juventud-t%C3%A9cnica/noticias-falsas-tambi%C3%A9n-sobre-nuestro-idioma-cca99a8251a3 |archive-date=2021-01-17 |access-date=2022-04-01 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |language=es}}</ref>

The [[Google Doodle]] for 23 April 2021 celebrated {{vr|ñ}} as part of [[UN Spanish Language Day]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Celebrating the Letter Ñ|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/celebrating-the-letter-n/|access-date=23 April 2021|website=www.google.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Musil|first=Steven|title=Google Doodle celebrates the Spanish letter Ñ|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/google-doodle-celebrates-the-spanish-letter-n/|access-date=23 April 2021|website=CNET|language=en}}</ref>

== Computer usage ==
[[File:Eñe on keyboard - blue.jpg|thumb|right|{{vr|ñ}} is to the right of {{vr|L}} on a Spanish [[keyboard layout]].]]
===Unicode===
* {{unichar | 00D1 }}
* {{unichar | 00F1 }}

{{vr|ñ}} 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 ===
{{vr|ñ}} may be used in [[internationalized domain name]]s, 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>{{Cite web|date=4 March 2016|title=Verisign IDN Conversion Tool|url=http://mct.verisign-grs.com/convertServlet?input=pi%C3%B1ata|access-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304105334/http://mct.verisign-grs.com/convertServlet?input=pi%C3%B1ata|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Tilde]]
* [[English terms with diacritical marks]]

===Other symbols for the palatal nasal===
* [[Gn (digraph)]]
* [[Nh (digraph)]]
* [[Nj (letter)]]
* [[Ny (digraph)]]
* [[Ɲ]]
* [[Ń]]
* [[Њ]]
* [[Ň]]
* [[Palatal nasal|{{IPA|ɲ|cat=no}} (IPA symbol)]]

===Other letters with tilde===
* [[Ã]]
* [[Ẽ]]
* [[G̃]]
* [[Ĩ]]
* [[M̃]]
* [[Õ]]
* [[P̃]]
* [[Ũ]]
* [[Ṽ]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{commons category-inline}}

{{Latin script}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:N Tilde}}
[[Category:Breton language]]
[[Category:Latin letters with diacritics]]
[[Category:Phonetic transcription symbols]]
[[Category:Spanish language]]