I’ve had the wonderful Spanish ñ on my mind lately (see e.g. here), and today decided to make a list of reasonably common Spanish words that use this characteristic letter. This started as a plain list of 57 words. Then I added translations. Then I couldn’t resist going back in time: I knew that the ñ sound had several different origins, but was curious to see how this worked out statistically.
The results are below, in tabular form so you can play with the words yourself if you like. The table is sorted by Type, meaning the type of the word’s origin; within each type, words are listed in alphabetical order. The types themselves are ordered by frequency.
- The most common origin is therefore the first one you see in the table: a Latin ne or ni. When followed by another vowel, the e or i turned into a y sound, which in turn had a transformative effect on the n. An example is España, from Latin Hispania. (The y sound had a similar effect on other consonants, not just n, and the resulting changes are referred to as palatalization.)
- The next most common origin is a Latin double nn; this is the source of the tilde (~) itself. An example is año, from Latin annus. Pleasingly, the suffix -eño has a dual origin, with one derivational path of the ne/ni type (seen in words like isleño) and another of the nn type (seen in pequeño).
- The third group is a Latin gn or ng sequence as in enseñar from Latin insignare. I knew that some ñ‘s came from gn, but the ng words were a surprise.
- Next are words borrowed from other languages. Here we find words that begin with an ñ, from languages as disparate as Quechua (chuño), Dutch (ñu), and Italian (tacaño).
- The mn group could really be collapsed under nn, because these words passed through an nn stage before emerging with an ñ. An example is sueño, from Latin somnus.
- Some words on the list were internally derived from other Spanish words. For example, caña ‘reed’ gave rise to both cañón and cañada.
- Finally, one word (rebaño) is of unknown origin — too bad I missed it when writing this recent post — and one (cariño) has a known origin that doesn’t seem likely to produce an ñ.
Word | Translation | Origin | Type |
1. araña | spider | Lat. aranea | ne/ni |
2. baño | bathroom | Lat. balneum | ne/ni |
3. campaña | field, campaign | Lat. campania | ne/ni |
4. compañero | companion | Lat. compania | ne/ni |
5. emponzoñar | to poison | Lat. potiniare | ne/ni |
6. España/español | Spain/Spanish | Lat. Hispania | ne/ni |
7. huraño | shy | Lat. foraneus | ne/ni |
8. isleño | islander | -eño suffix from Lat. ‑ineus | ne/ni |
9. jalapeño | type of pepper | Jalapa (Mex. prov.) plus -eño | ne/ni |
10. migraña | migraine | Lat. hermicrania | ne/ni |
11. montaña | mountain | Lat. montanea | ne/ni |
12. ordeñar | to milk | Lat. ordiniare | ne/ni |
13. piña | pinecone, pineapple | Lat. pinea | ne/ni |
14. saña | rage | Lat. insania | ne/ni |
15. señor, señora, señorita | Mr., Mrs., Miss | Lat. senior | ne/ni |
16. viña | vine | Lat. vinea | ne/ni |
17. añil | indigo | Ar. an-nil | nn |
18. año | year | Lat. annus | nn |
19. caña | reed | Lat. canna | nn |
20. engañar | to fool | Lat. ingannare | nn |
21. guiño | wink | Lat. cinnus | nn |
22. muñeca | wrist, doll | Lat. bonnicca | nn |
23. niño | boy | Lat. ninnus | nn |
24. ñoño | dull | Lat. nonnu | nn |
25. paño | cloth | Lat. pannus | nn |
26. peña | rock, crag | Lat. pinna | nn |
27. pequeño | small | -èño suffix from Lat. ‑innu | nn |
28. enseñar | to teach | Lat. insignare | gn/ng |
29. estaño | tin | Lat. stagnum | gn/ng |
30. heñir | to knead | Lat. fingere | gn/ng |
31. leña | firewood | Lat. ligna | gn/ng |
32. puño | fist | Lat. pugnus | gn/ng |
33. reñir | scold | Lat. ringi | gn/ng |
34. señal | signal | Lat. signa | gn/ng |
35. tamaño | size | Lat. tam magnus ‘so big!’ | gn/ng |
36. teñir | to dye | Lat. tingere | gn/ng |
37. uña | nail | Lat. ungula | gn/ng |
38. bruñir | polish | Occ. brunir | borr |
39. buñuelo | fritter | Cat. bony | borr |
40. champaña | champagne | Fr. champagne | borr |
41. chuño | potato starch | Quech. ch’uñu | borr |
42. gañán | farmhand | Fr. gaaignant | borr |
43. ñandú | rhea | Guar. ñandú | borr |
44. ñoqui | gnocchi | Ital. gnocchi | borr |
45. ñu | gnu | Dutch gnoe | borr |
46. tacaño | stingy | Ital. taccagno | borr |
47. vicuña | Quech. uikuña | borr | |
48. daño | harm | Lat. damnum | mn |
49. doña | lady | Lat. domina | mn |
50. dueño | master | Lat. dominus | mn |
51. otoño | autumn | Lat. autumnus | mn |
52. sueño | dream | Lat. somnus | mn |
53. apañar | to fix | from paño (below) | der |
54. cañada | ravine | from caña | der |
55. cañón | cannon, canyon | from caña | der |
56. cariño | affection | Lat. carere | |
57. rebaño | flock | unknown |