Porter, Clear jump. Your write-up refreshed dim memories of my high-school spanish. The pronunciation is the key: the ņ is, as you say, pronounced like a "y". As long as it is ah-bah-NAY-ro, for me it shall now be: Habanero and Jalapeņo. Thanks for the elucidation, Andy. (& thanks to the others who jumped in.) Porter Banister wrote: I'll jump in. The Cubans *do* tilde (as do all spanish speaking nations) when the tilde is appropriate to the word. Since Habanero is pronounced ah-bah-NAY-ro, and not ah-bah-NYER-o, no tilde is called for. When Cubans spell Jalapeņo, the tilde is both written and pronounced, because that chile is pronounced ha-lah-PAIN-yo. Hoping I Jumped Clearly, Porter