Editing Openai/69186d20-2d14-8013-b9c6-c09000f173f6 (section)

=== Assistant: 2511141559ET ===
251114_1559ET

short answer: the double n in ''Spáinnis'' isn’t doing something fresh and magical in that word itself; it’s inherited from the base ''Spáinn'', which is how Irish chose to represent the palatal-ish /ñ/ of ''España''.

Break it down:
'' ''Spáinnis'' = Spáinn + -is - ''Spáinn'' = “Spain” (the country) - ''-is* = productive language suffix (“X-ish language”) - Spáinn → Spáinnis “Spanish (language)” - Frainc → Fraincis “French (language)”
'' The nn is already present in ''Spáinn'', so it just carries over into ''Spáinnis*. The -is suffix doesn’t add an n; it just attaches to a stem that already ends in -nn.
'' Why does ''Spáinn'' itself have nn? - It’s an old borrowing ultimately related to Spanish ''España'' (< Latin Hispania). - Spanish ñ < Latin -ni-/-nn- and is a palatal nasal /ɲ/. - Irish historically often uses double n before a slender vowel to capture a palatal(ish) nasal or to reflect that historical cluster; so ''Spáinn* is the Irish way of encoding “Spain/ España” with a palatal/slender n. - Modern pronunciation is /ˈsˠpˠaːnʲ/ (single slender /nʲ/, not a geminate), but the orthography remembers the old double/palatal quality.

So in ''Spáinnis'' specifically:
* nn doesn’t change the fact that you just pronounce a single slender /nʲ/.
'' Its “purpose” is: - morphological: keep consistency with the stem ''Spáinn* - historical/orthographic: Irish chose -inn- to represent the /ɲ/-type nasal in the original foreign name.

If you saw a hypothetical ''Spáinis'' with one n, that would look like the base was *Spáin**, which is not how Irish historically adapted “Spain / España.”