Editing N (section)

==History==
{| class="wikitable"
! Egyptian hieroglyph<br />
! Phoenician<br />[[Nun (letter)|Nun]]
! Western Greek<br />[[Nu (letter)|Nu]]
! Etruscan<br /> N
! Latin<br /> N
|--- align=center
|<hiero>D</hiero>
| [[File:PhoenicianN-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x30px]]
| [[File:Greek Nu 01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x35px]]
| [[File:EtruscanN-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x30px]]
| [[File:Capitalis monumentalis N.SVG|class=skin-invert-image|x30px|Latin N]]
|}
  
One of the most common [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]], [[snake]], was used in [[Egyptian language|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 languages|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 alphabet|Phoenician]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Aramaic]], and [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] alphabets is ''[[Nun (letter)|nun]]'', which means "[[fish]]" in some of these languages. This possibly connects the letter to the [[𓈖|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 language|Greek]], [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]], [[Latin]], and modern languages.