Saturday 2 March 2024

Your Majesty, The Letter Ñ

 Orthography: the art of writing words with the proper letters and correct spelling, according to accepted usage.

Thanks to the letter Ñ, in Spanish we can dream (soñar), blink (pestañear), add (añadir), teach (enseñar) and do many other things in our daily life. Without the letter Ñ there will not be Spanish (español) nor Spain (España). If we lack this letter there would be no tomorrow (mañana), no year (año), no nail (uña), no autumn (otoño) or piñata, much less a dol or wrist (muñeca) or a chestnut tree/dark brown colour (castaño). This reflection was made by Alberto López in one of his articles for El País, where he stated that the letter Ñ is the identity of the Spanish language in the word.

I have spent several lessons teaching my year 7 to correctly pronounce the word “años” to say their age as well as “cumpleaños” to talk about their birthday. Despite lots of repetition, some of them carry on saying anos and cumpleanos. But this is not only a problem that I have with my year 7 students. I have also noticed that some of my year 11 pupils, when talking about their daily routine, they say, “me visto en el cuarto de bano,” instead of “en el cuarto de baño.” 

It is as if they are unable to embrace the letter Ñ as part of their journey of learning the language. I recollect and pass on to them the words that my primary school teacher, Señorita Begoña Carreño Nariño used to say - “Class, you must ensure that the letter N will not remove the stylish hat to the letter Ñ! It is not the same to say’ “Es un buen año” than “es un buen ano” or “echarse a la pena” (to throw yourself into grief) instead of “echarse a la peña” (to jump off the cliff).”

 

                                                                       Echarse a la pena                                  Echarse a la peña                                               

Fortunately, my A-Level students are now fully aware of the relevance of the letter Ñ, so they just do not miss it and what is more, they even respectfully call “the hat” by its proper name, “la virgulilla.” Before going to university, they know that “una cana” is a grey hair while “una caña” can be a cane and is also the term used in Spain referring to a small glass of beer served on tap, being one of the most common orders in bars, restaurants, and social gatherings. Perhaps one of my best achievements as a teacher is that they don’t confuse cono (cone) with coño (a rude word for a vagina)!

The letter Ñ is the only letter of the Spanish alphabet that originated in Spain and has been part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1803. Its origins dates back to the Middle Ages and its history became relevant in the XIII century when King Alfonso X came to the throne. He had a great interest in many areas of science and culture, therefore, it was he who dictated the first rules of Castilian, which included the used of the Ñ. Specialists say that the first appearance is recorded in a text from the year 1177. It was, they explain, the result of the abbreviation of two consecutive letters NN.


As the academics from Fundéu Guzmán Ariza in Dominican Republic have pointed out, the letter Ñ has a great symbolic value for the Spanish language. Without any doubt it is a graphic icon of the Spanish language. In addition to this, when looking at numbers, more than 15,700 words in Spanish contain the letter Ñ and more than 350 begin with this consonant that has a palatal nasal sound.

Since September 2024, the Department for Education in the UK requires schools to teach pupils at GCSE level a list of 1,700 words to pass their MFL exams. These words were taken from a list of the 2,000 most used words in the target language. When looking at the Spanish vocabulary required in the specifications from one of the exam boards, I found the following words with the letter Ñ.

 

Words like pineapple (piña), comic (viñeta), handkerchief (pañuelo), affectionate (cariñoso), endeavour (empeño), bathtub (bañera), swimsuit (bañador), light brown/chestnut tree (castaño), stingy (tacaño) were not included. The word, Miss (señorita) which is the title that many pupils call female teachers in the UK, has not been included either. These terms are not part of the 2,000 most used words and omitting “señorita” removes a great opportunity of being inclusive.

Going back to López’s reflection, I would add my own one too. Without the letter Ñ there will not be sir (señor) or lady (señora) and therefore there will not be children (niños) because the stork (la cigüeña) will not deliver babies, hence the superstores will not sell more nappies (pañales). We will not have classmates (compañeros de clase), spider (araña), campaign (campaña). Miss (señorita) will disappear, and the teacher will not be grumpy (gruñón). There would be no constipation (estreñimiento) and the music will not have castanets (castañuelas.) Furthermore, the wine will not be vintage (añejo) and the little Hispanic ones will miss the onomatopoeic sound ¡ñam, ñam, ñam! to express that something is yummy. The worst of all will be that people will not be smiley (risueña) and food will not be seasoned (aliñada) so we need to ensure we are putting our best effort (empeño) into teaching it (enseñarla) and avoid having a migraine (migraña) so we can say every year ¡Feliz Año! eating lasaña and drinking champaña.

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By Isabel O'Donoghue at 3 comments:
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