{{About|the letter of the alphabet}} {{Short description|Fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet}} {{pp-semi|small=yes}}{{pp-move|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox grapheme |name = N |letter = N n |script=Latin script |type=Alphabet |typedesc=ic and logographic |language=Latinlanguage |phonemes=[{{IPAlink|n}}]<br />[{{IPAlink|ŋ}}]<br />{{IPAblink|ɴ}}<br />[{{IPAlink|ɱ}}]<br />[{{IPAlink|ɲ}}]<br />[{{IPAlink|ɳ}}]<br />[[Help:IPA/Irish|[nˠ]]]<br />[{{IPAlink|ⁿ}}]<br />[{{IPAlink|̃|◌̃}}] |unicode=U+004E, U+006E |alphanumber=14 |number= |fam1=<hiero>I10</hiero> |fam2=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Nun |fam3=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Caanite Nun |fam4=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Nun |fam5=class=skin-invert-image|20px|Early Greek Ny |fam6=Ν ν |fam7=class=skin-invert-image|20px |fam8=𐌍 |usageperiod={{circa}} 700 BCE to present |children={{flex list|₦|Ƞ|Ŋ|ɧ|ʩ}} |sisters={{flex list|Н|Ң|Ӊ|Ӈ|Ԋ|<span>נ</span>, <span>ן</span>, <span>ن</span>, <span>ܢ</span>|ނ|Ն ն|Մ մ|ࠍ|ነ|ᚾ|Ꮋ|Ꮑ|Ꮓ}} |equivalents= |associates=n(x), nh, ng, ny |direction=Left-to-right |image=File:Latin_letter_N.svg |imageclass=skin-invert-image }} {{Latin letter info|n}}
'''N''' (minuscule: '''n''') is the fourteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other Western European languages, and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|ɛ|n}}), plural ''ens''.<ref>"N" ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989); ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993); "en," op. cit.</ref>
==History== {| class="wikitable" ! Egyptian hieroglyph<br /> ! Phoenician<br />Nun ! Western Greek<br />Nu ! Etruscan<br /> N ! Latin<br /> N |--- align=center |<hiero>D</hiero> | class=skin-invert-image|x30px | class=skin-invert-image|x35px | class=skin-invert-image|x30px | class=skin-invert-image|x30px|Latin N |} One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like the English {{angbr|J}}, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was ''djet''. It is speculated by some, such as archeologist Douglas Petrovich, that Semitic speakers working in Egypt adapted hieroglyphs to create the first alphabet.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-19 |title=Oldest alphabet identified as Hebrew |url=https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-alphabet-identified-hebrew |access-date=2024-06-24 |language=en-US}}</ref>
Some hold that they used the same snake symbol to represent N, with a great proponent of this theory being Alan Gardiner,<ref>{{Cite book |title=The world's writing systems |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |editor-last=Daniels |editor-first=Peter T. |location=New York |language=en |editor-last2=Bright |editor-first2=William}}</ref> because their word for "snake" may have begun with n (an example of a possible word being ''nahash''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goldwasser |first=Orly |title=How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs |url=https://library.biblicalarchaeology.org/article/how-the-alphabet-was-born-from-hieroglyphs/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=The BAS Library |language=en-US}}</ref>). However, this theory has become disputed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=LeBlanc |first=Paul |title=Deciphering the Proto-Sinaitic Script: Making Sense of the Wadi El-Hol and Serabit El-Khadim Early Alphabetic Inscriptions |date=2017 |publisher=SubclassPress |isbn=9780995284401}}</ref> The name for the letter in the Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic alphabets is ''nun'', which means "fish" in some of these languages. This possibly connects the letter to the hieroglyph for a water ripple, which phonetically makes the n sound.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gardiner's Sign List of Egyptian Hieroglyphs – Egyptian Hieroglyphs |url=https://www.egyptianhieroglyphs.net/gardiners-sign-list/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |language=en-US}}</ref> The sound value of the letter was {{IPA|/n/}}—as in Greek, Etruscan, Latin, and modern languages.
==Use in writing systems== {| class="wikitable mw-collapsible" |+ Pronunciation of {{angbr|n}} by language ! Orthography ! Phonemes |- ! Catalan | {{IPAslink|n}} |- ! {{nwr|Standard Chinese (Pinyin)}} | {{IPAslink|n}} |- ! English | {{IPAslink|n}}, {{IPAslink|ŋ}}, ''silent'' |- ! French | {{IPAslink|n}} or {{IPAslink|◌̃}} |- ! German | {{IPAslink|n}}, {{IPAslink|ŋ}} |- ! Portuguese | {{IPAslink|n}} or {{IPAslink|◌̃}} |- ! Spanish | {{IPAslink|n}} |- ! Turkish | {{IPAslink|n}} |}
===English=== In English, {{angbr|n}} usually represents a voiced alveolar nasal {{IPA|/n/}}, but can represent other nasal consonants due to assimilation. For example, before a velar plosive (as in ''ink'' or ''jungle''), {{angbr|n}} represents a voiced velar nasal {{IPA|/ŋ/}}.
{{angbr|n}} is generally silent when it is preceded by an {{angbr|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 {{angbr|n}} at the beginning of an English word. Examples include ''gnome'', ''knife'', ''mnemonic'', and ''pneumonia''.
The letter N is the sixth-most common letter and the second-most commonly used consonant in the English language (after {{angbr|t}}).<ref>{{cite web| url = https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html| title = English Letter Frequency}}</ref>
===Other languages=== The letter {{angbr|n}} represents a voiced dental nasal {{IPA|/n̪/}} or voiced alveolar nasal {{IPA|/n/}} in virtually all languages that use the Latin alphabet. In many languages, these nasal consonants assimilate with the consonant that follows them to produce other nasal consonants.
In Italian and French, {{angbr|gn}} represents a palatal nasal {{IPA|/ɲ/}}. The Portuguese and Vietnamese spelling for this sound is {{angbr|nh}}, while Spanish, Breton, and a few other languages use the letter {{angbr|ñ}}.
A common digraph with {{angbr|n}} is {{angbr|ng}}, which represents a voiced velar nasal {{IPA|/ŋ/}} in a variety of languages.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
===Other systems=== In the International Phonetic Alphabet, {{angbr|n}} represents the voiced alveolar nasal {{IPA|/n/}}.
==Other uses== {{main article|N (disambiguation)}} * In mathematics, the italic form ''n'' is a particularly common symbol for a variable quantity which represents a natural number. The set of natural numbers is referred to as <math>\mathbb{N}</math>.
==Related characters== <!-- Please only list characters (symbols in a writing system, but not just convenience code points in Unicode) that are actually related in terms of origin to the letter that is the topic of this article. Characters that merely look subjectively similar need not apply. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sources before adding more. -->
===Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet=== *N with diacritics: Ń ń Ñ ñ Ň ň Ǹ ǹ Ṅ ṅ Ṇ ṇ Ņ ņ Ṉ ṉ Ṋ ṋ Ꞥ ꞥ ᵰ<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf|title=L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS|date=2003-09-30|first=Peter|last=Constable}}</ref> ᶇ<ref name="L204132">{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf|title=L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS|date=2004-04-19|first=Peter|last=Constable}}</ref> *Phonetic alphabet symbols related to N (the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems): **Ŋ ŋ : Latin letter eng, which represents a velar nasal in the IPA **𝼔 : Small letter eng with palatal hook, which is used in phonetic transcription<ref name="L220125">{{Cite web|title=L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20125r-ipa-retroflex.pdf|date=2020-07-11|first=Kirk|last=Miller}}</ref><ref name="L221021">{{Cite web|title=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|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf|date=2020-12-07|first=Deborah|last=Anderson}}</ref> **𝼇 : Small letter reversed eng, which is an extension to IPA for disordered speech (extIPA)<ref name="L220116">{{Cite web|title=L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20116r-ext-ipa-voqs-expansion.pdf|date=2020-07-11|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Martin|last2=Ball}}</ref> **Ɲ ɲ : Latin letter Ɲ, which represents a palatal nasal or an alveolo-palatal nasal in the IPA **<sup>n</sup> : Superscript small n, which represents a nasal release in the IPA **Ƞ ƞ : Latin letter Ƞ (encoded in Unicode as "N with long right leg"), a mostly obsolete letter used to transcribe various nasal sounds ** ɳ : Latin letter n with a hook, which represents a retroflex nasal in the IPA ** ᶯ : Modifier letter small n with retroflex hook<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf|title=L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS|date=2004-04-19|first=Peter|last=Constable}}</ref> ** ᶮ : Modifier letter small n with left hook<ref name="L204132"/> **ɴ : Small capital N, which represents a uvular nasal in the IPA **ᶰ : Modifier letter small capital N<ref name="L204132"/> *Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to N:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf|title=L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS|date=2002-03-20|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|author-link1=Michael Everson|display-authors=etal}}</ref> **{{Unichar|1D0E|LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL REVERSED N}} **{{Unichar|1D3A|MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL N}} **{{Unichar|1D3B|MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL REVERSED N}} **{{Unichar|1D51|MODIFIER LETTER SMALL ENG}} *<sub>n</sub> : Subscript small n was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf|title=L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet|date=2009-01-27|first1=Klaas|last1=Ruppel|first2=Tero|last2=Aalto|first3=Michael|last3=Everson}}</ref> * The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses {{Unichar|AB3B|LATIN SMALL LETTER N WITH CROSSED-TAIL}} and {{Unichar|AB3C|LATIN SMALL LETTER ENG WITH CROSSED-TAIL}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf|title=L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS|date=2011-06-02|first1=Michael|last1=Everson|first2=Alois|last2=Dicklberger|first3=Karl|last3=Pentzlin|first4=Eveline|last4=Wandl-Vogt}}</ref> * ȵ : N with curl is used in Sino-Tibetanist linguistics<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01347-n2366r.pdf|title=L2/01-347: Proposal to add six phonetic characters to the UCS|date=2001-09-20|first1=Richard|last1=Cook|first2=Michael|last2=Everson}}</ref> *Ꞑ ꞑ : N with descender *: Small letter n with mid-height left hook was used by the British and Foreign Bible Society in the early 20th century for romanization of the Malayalam language.<ref name="L221156">{{Cite web|title=L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf|date=2021-07-16|first1=Kirk|last1=Miller|first2=Neil|last2=Rees}}</ref>
===Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets=== *𐤍 : Semitic letter Nun, from which the following symbols originally derive: **Ν ν : Greek letter Nu, from which the following symbols originally derive: ***{{Script|Copt|Ⲛ ⲛ}} : Coptic letter Ne ***Н н : Cyrillic letter En *** 𐌍 : Old Italic N, which is the ancestor of modern Latin N ***{{Script|Goth|𐌽}} : Gothic letter nauþs
===Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations=== *₦ : Nigerian Naira
{{anchor|Codes for computing}}
==Other representations== ===Computing <span class="anchor" id="Computing codes"></span>=== * {{unichar| 004E }} * {{unichar| 006E }} * {{unichar| FF2E |nlink=Half-width and full-width forms}} * {{unichar| FF4E }}
===Other=== {{Letter other reps |NATO=November |Morse=–· |Character=N |Braille=⠝ |fingerspelling=N }} {{clear}}
==See also== * {{Unichar|0418|Cyrillic capital letter I|nlink=И}} * {{Unichar|1D0E|Latin small capital reversed N|nlink=Phonetic Extensions}} – phonetic symbol
* {{anl|N-dash}} * Alphabets
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commons-inline}} *{{Wiktionary-inline|N}} *{{Wiktionary-inline|n}}
{{Latin alphabet|N|}}
Category:ISO basic Latin letters