"N̈", or "n̈" (referred to as n-diaeresis or n-umlaut) is a

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called '' graphemi ...

from several minor extended

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

s, the letter N with a

diaeresis mark Diaeresis (dieresis, diëresis) may refer to: * Diaeresis (prosody), pronunciation of vowels in a diphthong separately, or the division made in a line of poetry when the end of a foot coincides with the end of a word * Diaeresis (linguistics), o ...

. It occurs in the orthographies of Jacaltec (a Mayan dialect), Malagasy,

Tol language Tol (''Tolpan''), also known as Eastern Jicaque, Tolupan, and Torupan, is spoken by approximately 500 Tolupan people in La Montaña de la Flor reservation in Francisco Morazán Department, Honduras. Name Tol speakers refer to themselves as the ...

, and

Cape Verdean Creole Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is also called or by its native speakers. It is the native creole language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by t ...

, in all four cases representing a velar . It is also used in the

Boruca language The Boruca language (in Boruca: Brúnkajk, also known as Bronka, Bronca, Brunca) is the native language of the Boruca people of Costa Rica. Boruca belongs to the Isthmian branch of the Chibchan languages. Though exact speaker numbers are uncertai ...

Nawdm language Nawdm is a Gur language of Togo and Ghana. There are about 8000 of the speakers in Ghana and 200 000 speakers in Togo. Nawdm in Ghana Nawdm is spoken in the Greater Accra ( capital city of Ghana) and in the Volta Region(now Region of Volt ...

, and

Ocaina language Ocaina is an indigenous American language spoken in western South America. Classification Ocaina belongs to the Witotoan language family. It is its own group within the Huitoto-Ocaina sub-family. Geographic distribution Ocaina is spoken by 54 ...

Encoding

"N̈" and "n̈" appear in very few languages, so they are not represented on any

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technolog ...

in any language. Neither "N̈" nor "n̈" have precomposed forms in the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

character set, meaning their only representation is as a combining sequence of a letter "N" (or "n") followed by a combining diaeresis U+0308. "N̈" and "n̈" are not available as

HTML entities In SGML, HTML and XML documents, the logical constructs known as ''character data'' and ''attribute values'' consist of sequences of characters, in which each character can manifest directly (representing itself), or can be represented by a series ...

In popular culture

The letter is probably best known for its use in the title of the fictional band Spın̈al Tap. Its use there parodies the

metal umlaut A metal umlaut is a diacritic that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of mainly hard rock or heavy metal bands—for example, those of Blue Öyster Cult, Queensrÿche, Motörhead, the Accüsed, Mötley Crüe ...

used gratuitously by several actual bands, such as

Blue Öyster Cult Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla". The band h ...

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a prec ...

, and

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1981. The group was founded by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe has sold over 100 million albu ...

. According to fictional musician David St Hubbins, "it's like a pair of eyes; you're looking at the umlaut, and it's looking at you". The video game ''

Borderlands 2 ''Borderlands 2'' is a 2012 first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games. Taking place five years following the events of '' Borderlands'' (2009), the game is again set on the planet of Pandora. ...

'' contains a boss named Captain̈ Flyn̈t.

Encoding

In popular culture

See also