Tilde

[Cecile83]

Hello! Learn Spanish in Spain, I was taught that the squiggle above the ñ was called a Ñilde. Tilde, I was tought, was for the T, as in Tilde for T and Ñilde for the Ñ. Any profesional Spanish scholars out there that can verify this? Thank you and Happy New 2009!

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums!

The answer to your question was given in the earlier posts of this thread.

You won't find Ñilde in the dictionary and there is no tilde (diacritical mark) on the letter T in the Spanish language.

[María José]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Welcome to the forums!

The answer to your question was given in the earlier posts of this thread.

You won't find Ñilde in the dictionary and there is no tilde (diacritical mark) on the letter T in the Spanish language.

So what is the squiggle on top of the eñe called? Never knew it had a name... Does it?

[poli]

The eñe is something completely foreign to English speakers. To Spanish speakers the squiggle is part of a letter like to dot on the i or the cross of the t. Traditionally American Spanish teachers refer to that squiggle as the tilde that modifies the letter n the way the diarisis modifies the u. Perhaps it should be considered a separate letter instead of a modification of the n , but to my knowledge people haven't been taught that way.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by María José

So what is the squiggle on top of the eñe called? Never knew it had a name... Does it?

See post #2. I listed both of the Spanish names for it, even though some argue there shouldn't be a name for it because it's a letter en sí.

Tilde is just one of the English words for the squiggley mark. We English speakers must have a name for it because that mark isn't used in English words. As Poli suggested, even though the letters of the alphabet are usually thought of as complete entities, we do have terms to describe the dot over the i, the legs of the k, the cross of the t, etc. Don't Spanish school teachers talk about the virgulilla, or tilde, sobre la ñ?