Ñ, the letter that lets us dream
Learn about the origin of the letter ñ, a symbol of the identity of the Spanish language that forms part of the structure of over 15,000 words.
A Spanish identifier
The letter ñ lets us teach (enseñar), partner up (acompañar), design (diseñar), yearn (añorar), and dream (soñar). It is the 15th letter of the Spanish alphabet and forms part of over 15,000 words. It is a Spanish identifier, but it doesn't just exist in this language and hasn't always been around.
The 4 edition, the first of the 19th century, contains approximately 59 000 slogans. It is characterized by the admission of numerous scientific neologisms and represents the greatest expansion of the Dictionary in its history. (1803) by RAEFundación Antonio de Nebrija
The origin of the letter
The letter ñ did not enter the Royal Spanish Academy dictionary until 1803. However, the genuine Spanish origin of this letter dates back to almost a century prior.
Parchment (1736)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
As Latin evolved and Romance languages such as Castilian emerged, this nasal (the air exiting through the nose) and palatal (with the tongue resting against the palate when pronouncing) sound appeared, which we recognize as eñe (en-yeh).
Institutiones grammaticae (1101-1300)Original Source: National Library of Spain
Because there was no representation of this sound, scribes had to find ways to transcribe it. Different phonetic variations existed: gn, ng, and nn—typically combinations of two letters.
Medieval Copyist (1200)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
In the Middle Ages, monks who worked as copyists and scribes started to abbreviate duplicate letters in texts to save time and elevated costs due to a lack of parchment paper. One letter was removed and a horizontal stroke was written above the other.
Legal arguments (1501)Original Source: National Library of Spain
This initially occurred with the double n (or twin n), leaving just the letter n. Above this is what we now know as the tilde (~) from the Latin titulus, meaning title or superscription. This is how donna became doña (lady), for example, and annus became año (year).
Ode to Barcelona (1883)Original Source: National Library of Spain
Castilian and Galician opted for this ñ form in writing and speech, while Portuguese created the nh combination (Espanha), French and Italian opted for the gn combination (Espagna), and Catalan introduced the ny form (Espanya).
Lighting of the Book of Games (1252)Fundación Antonio de Nebrija
A combination of the phonemes above continued to be used interchangeably until the 13th century, when the orthographic reform of King Alfonso X The Wise, who sought to establish the first rules of Castilian, decided on ñ.
Spanish Grammar (1492) by Antonio de NebrijaOriginal Source: Spanish National Library
Its use then spread across the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. Much later, Antonio de Nebrija included the ñ in the first Spanish grammar in 1492. This letter was also adopted by some Amerindian languages, such as Quechua, after the arrival of the Spaniards in the region.
Newspaper clippings 1991 (1991) by El PaísFundación Antonio de Nebrija
A letter that almost disappeared
In 1991, the former European Economic Community planned to remove the ñ in favor of uniformity in electronic text. However, the Spanish government approved a royal decree that maintained that its use was obligatory as a cultural exception.
Keyboard letters (2020) by Miguel Á. PadriñánFundación Antonio de Nebrija
English was the dominant language in the digital revolution. This meant that the ñ faced other obstacles, like not appearing in email addresses or URLs initially. Even now, it is still not included on some keypads.
Flamenco (2019) by Mark NealFundación Antonio de Nebrija
Spanish (español) is written with ñ
In the 21st century, the letter ñ has become a commonly used symbol to represent the identity of the Castilian language. It is the beacon used by certain sports organizations that adopted the letter as their brand.
Indigenous woman (2021) by Los Muertos CrewFundación Antonio de Nebrija
However, we can also find this letter in languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Otomi, Quechua, Aymara, Mapuche, and Guaraní, and other variations of eñe are in both Galician and Asturian and Basque.
Based on information from The Letter 'ñ,' the Identity of Spanish in the World (La Letra ñ, la Identidad del Español en el mundo) by Alberto López.
Curator: Rodrigo Díaz
