Where did the Ñ come from?
I just came across this, and I thought some people might find it of interest:
Where did the Ñ come from?
Beginning in about the 12th century, Spanish scribes (whose job it was to copy documents by hand) used the tilde placed over letters to indicate that a letter was doubled (so that, for example, nn became ñ and aa became ã). I'm not sure why they used the tilde, except perhaps that it was quick to write, although it may be no coincidence that it is shaped vaguely like an N. The tilde was used not only with the n but with other letters as well.
The popularity of the tilde for other letters eventually waned, and by the 14th century, the ñ was the only place it was used. Its origins can be seen in a word such as año (which means "year"), as it comes from the Latin word annus with a double n. As the phonetic nature of Spanish became solidified, the ñ came to be used for its sound, not just for words with an nn. A number of Spanish words, such as señal and campaña, that are English cognates use the ñ where English uses "gn," such as in "signal" and "campaign," respectively.
The Spanish ñ has been copied by two other languages that are spoken by minorities in Spain. It is used in Euskara, the Basque language that is unrelated to Spanish, to represent approximately the same sound as it has in Spanish. It is also used in Galician, a language similar to Portuguese. (Portuguese uses nh to represent the same sound.)
Additionally, three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines led to the adoption of many Spanish words in the national language, Tagalog (also known as Pilipino or Filipino). The ñ is among the letters that have been added to the traditional 20 letters of the language.
And while the ñ isn't part of the English alphabet, it frequently is used by careful writers when using adopted words such as jalapeño, piña colada or piñata and in the spelling of various personal and place names.
In Portuguese, the tilde is placed over vowels to indicate that the sound is nasalized. That use of the tilde has no apparent direct connection with the use of the tilde in Spanish.
6 Answers
Nice read, with one correction. We only have 17 traditional letters in Filipino, one of which is the letter "nga" or -ng. When Ñ was added to the alphabet (along with C, F, Z, etc.) it went between N & Ng. We use ñ almost exclusively for words borrowed from Spanish & for our names, of course.
I'm not sure why they used the tilde, except perhaps that it was quick to write, although it may be no coincidence that it is shaped vaguely like an N. The tilde was used not only with the n but with other letters as well.
They did it to abbreviate. They even went as far as writing m?te instead of mente.
The sound of the ñ happens because with certain combinations of sounds, the tongue got close to the palate, and eventually it touched it (it didn't happen with all words). Some of these combinations are:
- nn: annus ? año, capanna ? cabaña, ingannare ? engañar, grunnire ? gruñir
- gn: hispaniolus ? espaignol ? español, champignon ? champiñón, cognatus ? cuñado, disegnare ? diseñar, insignare ? enseñar, pugnus ? puño, signalis ? señal
- neu: balneum ? baño, extraneus ? extraño, foraneus ? huraño
- nea: aranea ? araña, castanea ? castaña, montanea ? montaña, pinea ? piña, balneare ? bañar, maneana ? mañana
- nio/a: senior ? señor, ciconia ? cigüeña, compania ? compañía, mania ? maña
I read this, but it doesn´t mention how it became separate letter rather than a n with a diatricial mark.
Thanks I liked it very much.
Cool! Thanks for posting that.
Thanks everyone, for the comments (....and the votes 
), if you found this interesting in the slightest, then I applaud you!!!
