N with tilde

The wavy line on ñ is a tiny n. Medieval scribes saved effort by writing a double nn as one n with a small mark above it, and Spanish kept the shortcut for its ny sound, later using it even in words that never had nn, such as señor.

Galician, Basque, Filipino and Guarani also use ñ, while other Romance languages spell the same sound gn (Italian and French), nh (Portuguese) or ny (Catalan). In 1991 a European Community report called a Spanish rule protectionist because it barred computer products that did not support Spanish writing; the Real Academia Española called the proposal a serious attack on the language.