How Spanish got its ñ - the story behind that "n with a tilde"

The history of an ordinary Latin mark that turned into an extraordinary Spanish letter. This is how espannol became español!

Back in medieval Spain, scribes were putting the Latin alphabet on parchment to hand stories and information down to us in their manuscripts. One of their unique, rare manuscripts tells the story of El Cid. But if you look at this manuscript, you'll see that the script is a bit... strange.

Get close enough to the pergamino (parchment) to see all the little squiggles. In Latin, that squiggle is a "titulus". In Spanish, the word "titulus" evolved into "tilde".

Let's follow just one of those squiggles to learn its story. It's the story of a routine little mark that became one of the world's most recognizable letters.

~ CREDITS & SOURCES ~

Art, narration and animation by Josh from NativLang. Some of the music, too (intro piano, ending, light guitar in the middle, Thoth's Pill bit and "Upbeat Thoughts").

Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com): Arid Foothills, Path of the Goblin King v2, Angevin B, The Show Must Be Go

Sneaky Snooper by Jason Shaw (audionautix.com).

Upbeat Thoughts (soundcloud.com/Botmasher).

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.