Adopted words such as “jalapeño” and “piñata” used in English have a common characteristic and an interesting history. They originate from Spanish and use ñ, a letter not common in English. This letter occupies the seventeenth position in the Spanish alphabet and has a purely Spanish origin. It was first used in Spanish and later on, other languages incorporated its sound.
The ñ comes from a Latin abbreviation, which consisted in the double use of the letter “n” in words such as “anno” and “Hispannia.” In occasions, when writing the double n, it began to appear with a single n topped with a smaller n. With the passage of time, the small n transformed into a simple orthographic sign (a diacritic) until it finally evolved into the ñ as we know it today. Despite that, other Romance languages have retained a double spelling for this sound, for example, ny in Catalan and Hungarian, gn in French and Italian, and nh in Portuguese, among others.
Due to the influence and supremacy of the English language, new technology was reluctant to incorporate it, especially in keyboards. The RAE (Real Academia Española) and many distinctive figures such as Gabriel García Márquez soon expressed their disagreement with this omission and since then, this letter has gained supporters who advocate for using ñ in the virtual world.