# N

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This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For other uses, see [N (disambiguation)](/source/N_(disambiguation)).

Fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet

N N n Usage Writing system Latin script Type Alphabetic and logographic Language of origin Latin language Sound values [n] [ŋ] [ɴ] [ɱ] [ɲ] [ɳ] [nˠ] [ⁿ] [◌̃] In Unicode U+004E, U+006E Alphabetical position 14 History Development Ν ν 𐌍 N n Time period c. 700 BCE to present Descendants ₦ Ƞ Ŋ ɧ ʩ Sisters Н Ң Ӊ Ӈ Ԋ נ, ן, ن, ܢ ނ Ն ն Մ մ ࠍ ነ ᚾ Ꮋ Ꮑ Ꮓ Other Associated graphs n(x), nh, ng, ny Writing direction Left-to-right This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic Latin alphabet AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz v t e

**N** ([minuscule](/source/Letter_case): **n**) is the fourteenth [letter](/source/Letter_(alphabet)) of the [Latin alphabet](/source/Latin_alphabet), used in the [modern English alphabet](/source/English_alphabet), the alphabets of other [Western European languages](/source/Languages_of_Europe), and others worldwide. Its name in English is [*en*](/source/English_alphabet#Letter_names) (pronounced [/ˈɛn/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English)), plural *ens*.[1]

## History

Egyptian hieroglyph Phoenician Nun Western Greek Nu Etruscan N Latin N

One of the most common [hieroglyphs](/source/Egyptian_hieroglyphs), [snake](/source/Snake), was used in [Egyptian](/source/Egyptian_language) writing to stand for a sound like the English ⟨[J](/source/J)⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was *djet*. It is speculated by some, such as [archeologist](/source/Archaeology) Douglas Petrovich, that [Semitic speakers](/source/Semitic_languages) working in [Egypt](/source/Egyptian_hieroglyphs) adapted hieroglyphs to create the first [alphabet](/source/Alphabet).[2]

Some hold that they used the same snake symbol to represent N, with a great proponent of this theory being [Alan Gardiner](/source/Alan_Gardiner),[3] because their word for "snake" may have begun with n (an example of a possible word being *nahash*[4]). However, this theory has become disputed.[5] The name for the letter in the [Phoenician](/source/Phoenician_alphabet), [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew_language), [Aramaic](/source/Aramaic), and [Arabic](/source/Arabic_alphabet) alphabets is *[nun](/source/Nun_(letter))*, which means "[fish](/source/Fish)" in some of these languages. This possibly connects the letter to the [hieroglyph for a water ripple](/source/%F0%93%88%96), which phonetically makes the n sound.[6] The sound value of the letter was /n/—as in [Greek](/source/Greek_language), [Etruscan](/source/Etruscan_language), [Latin](/source/Latin), and modern languages.

## Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of ⟨n⟩ by language Orthography Phonemes Catalan /n/ Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /n/ English /n/, /ŋ/, silent French /n/ or /◌̃/ German /n/, /ŋ/ Portuguese /n/ or /◌̃/ Spanish /n/ Turkish /n/

### English

In [English](/source/English_orthography), ⟨n⟩ usually represents a [voiced alveolar nasal](/source/Voiced_alveolar_nasal) /n/, but can represent other [nasal consonants](/source/Nasal_consonant) due to [assimilation](/source/Assimilation_(phonology)). For example, before a [velar plosive](/source/Velar_stop) (as in *ink* or *jungle*), ⟨n⟩ represents a [voiced velar nasal](/source/Voiced_velar_nasal) /ŋ/.

⟨n⟩ is generally silent when it is preceded by an ⟨m⟩ at the end of words, as in *hymn*; however, it is pronounced in this combination when occurring word medially, as in *hymnal*. Other consonants are often silent when they precede an ⟨n⟩ at the beginning of an English word. Examples include *gnome*, *knife*, *mnemonic*, and *pneumonia*.

The letter N is the sixth-most [common letter](/source/Letter_frequency) and the second-most commonly used [consonant](/source/Consonant) in the [English language](/source/English_language) (after ⟨t⟩).[7]

### Other languages

The letter ⟨n⟩ represents a [voiced dental nasal](/source/Voiced_dental_nasal) /n̪/ or [voiced alveolar nasal](/source/Voiced_alveolar_nasal) /n/ in virtually all languages that use the Latin alphabet. In many languages, these nasal consonants [assimilate](/source/Assimilation_(phonology)) with the consonant that follows them to produce other nasal consonants.

In [Italian](/source/Italian_language) and [French](/source/French_language), ⟨gn⟩ represents a [palatal nasal](/source/Palatal_nasal) /ɲ/. The [Portuguese](/source/Portuguese_language) and [Vietnamese](/source/Vietnamese_language) spelling for this sound is ⟨nh⟩, while [Spanish](/source/Spanish_language), [Breton](/source/Breton_language), and a few other languages use the letter ⟨[ñ](/source/%C3%91)⟩.

A common [digraph](/source/Digraph_(orthography)) with ⟨n⟩ is ⟨ng⟩, which represents a [voiced velar nasal](/source/Voiced_velar_nasal) /ŋ/ in a variety of languages.[8][9]

### Other systems

In the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet), ⟨n⟩ represents the [voiced alveolar nasal](/source/Voiced_alveolar_nasal) /n/.

## Other uses

Main article: [N (disambiguation)](/source/N_(disambiguation))

- In [mathematics](/source/Mathematics), the [italic](/source/Italic_type) form *n* is a particularly common symbol for a [variable](/source/Variable_(mathematics)) quantity which represents a [natural number](/source/Natural_number). The [set](/source/Set_(mathematics)) of natural numbers is referred to as N {\displaystyle \mathbb {N} } .

## Related characters

### Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

- N with [diacritics](/source/Diacritic): [Ń ń](/source/%C5%83) [Ñ ñ](/source/%C3%91) [Ň ň](/source/%C5%87) [Ǹ ǹ](/source/%C7%B8) [Ṅ ṅ](/source/%E1%B9%84) [Ṇ ṇ](/source/Dot_(diacritic)) [Ņ ņ](/source/Cedilla) [Ṉ ṉ](/source/%E1%B9%88) [Ṋ ṋ](/source/%E1%B9%8A) [Ꞥ ꞥ](/source/%EA%9E%A4) [ᵰ](/source/%E1%B5%B0)[10] [ᶇ](/source/%E1%B6%87)[11]

- [Phonetic alphabet](/source/Phonetic_transcription#Alphabetic) symbols related to N (the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems): - Ŋ ŋ : [Latin letter eng](/source/Eng_(letter)), which represents a [velar nasal](/source/Velar_nasal) in the IPA - 𝼔 : Small letter eng with palatal hook, which is used in [phonetic transcription](/source/Phonetic_transcription)[12][13] - 𝼇 : Small letter reversed eng, which is an [extension to IPA](/source/Extensions_to_the_International_Phonetic_Alphabet) for disordered speech (extIPA)[14] - Ɲ ɲ : [Latin letter Ɲ](/source/%C6%9D), which represents a [palatal nasal](/source/Palatal_nasal) or an [alveolo-palatal](/source/Alveolo-palatal_consonant) nasal in the IPA - n : Superscript small n, which represents a [nasal release](/source/Nasal_release) in the IPA - Ƞ ƞ : [Latin letter Ƞ](/source/%C8%A0) (encoded in Unicode as "N with long right leg"), a mostly [obsolete](/source/Obsolescence) letter used to transcribe various nasal sounds - ɳ : Latin letter n with a hook, which represents a [retroflex nasal](/source/Retroflex_nasal) in the IPA - ᶯ : Modifier letter small n with retroflex hook[15] - [ᶮ](/source/%E1%B6%AE) : Modifier letter small n with left hook[11] - ɴ : Small capital N, which represents a [uvular nasal](/source/Uvular_nasal) in the IPA - ᶰ : Modifier letter small capital N[11]

- [Uralic Phonetic Alphabet](/source/Uralic_Phonetic_Alphabet)-specific symbols related to N:[16] - U+1D0E ᴎ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL REVERSED N - U+1D3A ᴺ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL N - U+1D3B ᴻ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL REVERSED N - U+1D51 ᵑ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL ENG

- n : Subscript small n was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902[17]

- The [Teuthonista](/source/Teuthonista) phonetic transcription system uses U+AB3B ꬻ LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CROSSED-TAIL and U+AB3C ꬼ LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG WITH CROSSED-TAIL[9]

- [ȵ](/source/%C8%B5) : N with curl is used in Sino-Tibetanist linguistics[8]

- Ꞑ ꞑ : [N with descender](/source/N_with_descender) - Small letter n with mid-height left hook was used by the [British and Foreign Bible Society](/source/British_and_Foreign_Bible_Society) in the early 20th century for [romanization](/source/Romanization) of the [Malayalam](/source/Malayalam) language.[18]

### Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

- 𐤍 : [Semitic](/source/Phoenician_alphabet) letter [Nun](/source/Nun_(letter)), from which the following symbols originally derive: - Ν ν : [Greek letter Nu](/source/Nu_(Greek)), from which the following symbols originally derive: - Ⲛ ⲛ : [Coptic](/source/Coptic_alphabet) letter Ne - Н н : [Cyrillic](/source/Cyrillic) letter [En](/source/En_(Cyrillic)) - 𐌍 : [Old Italic](/source/Old_Italic_script) N, which is the ancestor of modern Latin N - 𐌽 : [Gothic](/source/Gothic_alphabet) letter nauþs

### Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

- ₦ : [Nigerian Naira](/source/Nigerian_Naira)

## Other representations

### Computing

- U+004E N LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N

- U+006E n LATIN SMALL LETTER N

- U+FF2E Ｎ [FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N](/source/Half-width_and_full-width_forms)

- U+FF4E ｎ FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER N

### Other

NATO phonetic Morse code November ▄▄▄ ▄ ⓘ

Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-1345 Unified English Braille

## See also

- U+0418 И [CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER I](/source/%D0%98)

- U+1D0E ᴎ [LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL REVERSED N](/source/Phonetic_Extensions) – phonetic symbol

- [N-dash](/source/N-dash) – Dash as wide as the letter N

- [Alphabets](/source/Alphabet)

## Notes

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** "N" *Oxford English Dictionary,* 2nd edition (1989); *Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged* (1993); "en," op. cit.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Oldest alphabet identified as Hebrew"](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-alphabet-identified-hebrew). 19 November 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, eds. (1996). *The world's writing systems*. New York: Oxford University Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-19-507993-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-507993-7).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Goldwasser, Orly. ["How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs"](https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/how-the-alphabet-was-born-from-hieroglyphs/). *The BAS Library*. Retrieved 24 June 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** LeBlanc, Paul (2017). *Deciphering the Proto-Sinaitic Script: Making Sense of the Wadi El-Hol and Serabit El-Khadim Early Alphabetic Inscriptions*. SubclassPress. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780995284401](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780995284401).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Gardiner's Sign List of Egyptian Hieroglyphs – Egyptian Hieroglyphs"](https://www.egyptianhieroglyphs.net/gardiners-sign-list/). Retrieved 24 June 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["English Letter Frequency"](https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_8-1) Cook, Richard; Everson, Michael (20 September 2001). ["L2/01-347: Proposal to add six phonetic characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01347-n2366r.pdf) (PDF).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_9-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_9-1) Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2 June 2011). ["L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Constable, Peter (30 September 2003). ["L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf) (PDF).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-L204132_11-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-L204132_11-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-L204132_11-2) Constable, Peter (19 April 2004). ["L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220125_12-0)** Miller, Kirk (11 July 2020). ["L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20125r-ipa-retroflex.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L221021_13-0)** Anderson, Deborah (7 December 2020). ["L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220116_14-0)** Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (11 July 2020). ["L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20116r-ext-ipa-voqs-expansion.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Constable, Peter (19 April 2004). ["L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** [Everson, Michael](/source/Michael_Everson); et al. (20 March 2002). ["L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (27 January 2009). ["L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf) (PDF).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L221156_18-0)** Miller, Kirk; Rees, Neil (16 July 2021). ["L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf) (PDF).

## External links

- Media related to [N](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/N) at Wikimedia Commons

- The dictionary definition of [*N*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/N) at Wiktionary

- The dictionary definition of [*n*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/n) at Wiktionary

v t e Latin script History Spread Romanization Roman numerals Ligatures Alphabets (list) Classical Latin alphabet ISO basic Latin alphabet Phonetic alphabets International Phonetic Alphabet X-SAMPA Spelling alphabet Letters (list) Letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Additional Latin letters Æ æ Ɑ ɑ Ʌ ʌ Ꞵ ꞵ Ð ð Ɛ ɛ Ə ə Ǝ ə Ɣ ɣ Ƣ ƣ Ɩ ɩ Ɥ ɥ Ꟛ ꟛ Ŋ ŋ Œ œ Ɔ ɔ Ɤ ɤ Kʼ ĸ Ʀ ʀ ẞ ß Ʃ ʃ Ɯ ɯ Ʊ ʊ Ꞷ ꞷ Ʋ ʋ Ƿ ƿ Ȝ ȝ ϴ θ Ʒ ʒ Ƹ ƹ Þ þ Ȣ ȣ Ꭓ ꭓ Ɂ ʔ ɂ ꟎ ʕ ꟏ ǀ ǁ ǂ ǃ ʘ ʻ ʼ Ꞌ ꞌ Ƨ ƨ Ꜫ ꜫ Ꜭ ꜭ Ƽ ƽ Ƅ ƅ 7 Letter N with diacritics Ńń Ǹǹ Ňň Ññ Ṅṅ Ņņ Ṇṇ Ṋṋ Ṉṉ N̈n̈ Ɲɲ Ŋŋ 𝼔 Ƞƞ Ꞑꞑ Ꞥꞥ ᵰ ᶇ ɳ ȵ ꬻ ꬼ 𝼧 Multigraphs Digraphs Ch Dz Dž Gh IJ Lj Ll Ly Nh Nj Ny Sh Sz Th Trigraphs dzs eau Tetragraphs ough Keyboard layouts (list) QWERTY QWERTZ AZERTY Dvorak Colemak BÉPO Neo Historical standards ISO/IEC 646 Western Latin character sets Current standards Unicode DIN 91379: Unicode subset for Europe Lists Precomposed Latin characters in Unicode Letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering List of typographical symbols and punctuation marks Diacritics Palaeography

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