Ny ny — enya
«enya» is a digraph of Valencian, the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script, read as “ny as in "canyon"”. A soft ny in one sound — exactly the Spanish ñ. For example, in the word “any” — year. The Valencian alphabet has 35 letters in total. Catalunya ends in it, and so does any, "year". It appears, for example, in the word “més o menys” — so-so.
In short
| Character | Ny ny |
| Name | enya |
| Sound | ny as in "canyon" |
| What it is | a digraph |
In our course the character comes 18th of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are n and o, appears in 79 words of this site.
How it sounds
A soft ny in one sound — exactly the Spanish ñ
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- anyyear
The character in the “the signature signs” group
ç is the only letter with a cedilla, l·l the only mid-word dot in Europe. The letter pairs are not letters, but without them you cannot read so much as a menu.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «enya» it is “ny as in "canyon"”, as in the word “any”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 35 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Valencian character ny read?
As “ny as in "canyon"” — it is a digraph of the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script. A soft ny in one sound — exactly the Spanish ñ. For example, in the word “any” — year.
What is the letter ny called?
Enya. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Valencian script: it is called “enya” and reads as “ny as in "canyon"”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ny be confused with?
Catalunya ends in it, and so does any, "year". Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.