"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 from Ancient Greek ('write'), and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other emic units. The study of graphemes ...

from several minor extended

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

s, the letter N with a diaeresis mark. It occurs in the orthographies of Jacaltec (a

Mayan language Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

), Malagasy (infrequently used),

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 th ...

, and

Cape Verdean Creole Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole languages, Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is the native creole language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by the Cape Verd ...

, in all four cases representing a velar . It is also used in the Boruca language, Nawdm language (where it only exists as a

lowercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally '' minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing system ...

letter),

Jersey Dutch Jersey Dutch () ( Low Dutch), also known as Bergen Dutch, was a Dutch dialect formerly spoken in northeastern New Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century. It evolved in one of the two Dutch-speaking enclaves that remaine ...

, and Ocaina language. In

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, N̈ represents a

nitrene In chemistry, a nitrene or imene () is the nitrogen analogue of a carbene. The nitrogen atom is uncharged and valence (chemistry)#monovalent, monovalent, so it has only 6 electrons in its valence level—two covalent bonded and four non-bonded e ...

Encoding

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

computer keyboard A computer keyboard is a built-in or peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or Push-button, keys to act as Mechanical keyboard, mechanical levers or Electronic switching system, electro ...

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

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

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 (also known as röck döts) 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, Motörhea ...

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, New York, in the hamlet of Stony Brook, in 1967. They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. ...

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1975 by bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Kilmister was the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band a ...

, and

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Hollywood, California, in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, with guitarist Mick Mars and lead vocalist Vince Neil joining right after. The band has sol ...

. 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 Action role-playing game, action role-playing first-person shooter video game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K (company), 2K. Taking place five years following the events of ''Borderlands (video game ...

'' contains a boss named Captain̈ Flyn̈t. American children's animated series '' Hanazuki: Full of Treasures'' logo stylized using umlauts as ''Han̈azüki''.

References

Latin letters with diacritics id:Umlaut#N̈n̈ {{linguistics-stub

Encoding

In popular culture

See also

References