The letter " ñ " is Latin small letter ( aka minuscule letter ) line up in Spanish parole . A tilde ( the squiggly line over the letter ) distinguishes " ñ " from " n " and gives it dissimilar pronunciation . For instance , in Spanish , " ano " is pronounced " ah - no " and " año " is pronounced " ahn - yo . " And for the record , these two words haveverydifferent meanings as well .
The alphabetical character likely has a Spanish origin since it is not found in the Latin alphabet , even though similar character reference appear in other romance languages such asFrench , Portuguese andItalian .
A Brief History of Ñ in the Spanish Language
Spanish speakers disperse their language from Spain and the Iberian Peninsula as they travel and merchandise ( and , as was the case with multiple European civilizations , colonized ) .
Like other languages , the Spanish language develop as it met various acculturation and lingual group . During the Middle Ages , scribes bring out a wide used orthoepy of the " n " sound that did n’t have a written equivalent weight .
Scribes used " ñ " to represent the palatal nasal strait they heard on the streets . Not only did this simple character economize time in language , but it was also utile forwriterstrying to save space on the page or else of indite the treble " nn " every fourth dimension .
Differences Between N in the English and Spanish Alphabet
The letter " n " does not make the same speech sound in Spanish as it does in English because English was earlier a West Germanic oral communication from the Indo - European linguistic family .
Although other languages may have a exchangeable character , how they are perceived and talk depend greatly on which direction the original languages trip from .
What Is the Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary?
Even within the history - rich Spanish culture , interesting divergences in enunciate sure words can occur , since these freestanding region were mold by the path of history and in-migration in the ancient world
Students at the Cervantes Institute follow thetraditionof Antonio de Nebrija and other famous linguist , meditate former Spanish grammar and maintaining cognition of this ancient tongue .
The Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary is a common resource anyone can apply on the internet to find out how to pen or pronounce any word that may exist in the spoken language . This dictionary also includesregionaldifferences such as Catalan , Basque and Galician .
