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Title says it all... In English, repeated letters are occasionally used in informal writing to echo the emphasis of parts of spoken words (dwelling on certain consonants or vowels), for example:
Heyyyyyyy! That's quite the huuuuuuge apartment you've got here!
Does this work the same way in Spanish? Particularly with an eñe? ("jalapeññññño!!!" or "¡Ay, seññññññora! )
Yes, you can repeat the letters you need if you want to reflect in the text that way of speech, or even for comedic or onomatopoeic effects. This is particularly used with vowels, but also with some consonants:
[...] le hacen reverencias a la Iris que es lo que a ella le gusta porque le da risa, y que le echen de ese humito oloroso, y hasta que le bailen haciéndole aaaaasssssííííí, aaaaasssssííííí con los brazos, genuflexiones con sus rodillas que crujen [...]
José Donoso, "El obsceno pájaro de la noche", 1970 (Chile)
Se oye un tambor donde no están sonánnnnndose los mocos, traza palotes en la escuela del viento, es un tambor...
Miguel Ángel Asturias, "El Señor Presidente", 1933-1946 (Guatemala)
Vino, pues, el tonto Almecina, y Pío Cid, que no sabía nada de él, le sentó en una silla a su lado, y le preguntó que cómo se llamaba.
—Me lla... lla... llamo Allll... me... me... mecina.Ángel Ganivet, "Los trabajos del infatigable creador Pío Cid", 1898 (Spain)
Note this last example in particular, how an elonged L denotes the effort the speaker does before uttering the next syllable.
For some other consonants it would be more difficult to pronounce it in a sustained way, but nonetheless I could find an example with the ñ:
—¡Apaaara! ¡Apaaara, desgrasiao! —le gritaba el tartanero, Luis el Claca, que no eran Carnavales, no se daba de cuenta y seguía rebenquiando sin írsele ni venírsele...
—¡Bandío... pxeñ rrr... uu ñññ.
—La suya —gritaba de abajo Monagas, con tal pasta que la del turrón al lado es la bomba anémica.Francisco Guerra Navarro, "Los cuentos famosos de Pepe Monagas", 1941-a1961 (Spain)
That sounds like the writer tried to reflect an unrecognizable uttering in this case. But nonetheless you are free to repeat the ñ indeed to reflect an emphasys on the pronunciation of that letter.
Think about your question for just one minute.
STRESS
Any word in Spanish can be stressed on a syllable, and, if you are emphasizing something beyond a superlative, as in grandíssimo, only the vowel sounds can be drawn out.
Grandííisimo.
Posible utlización:
Pregunta: ¿ Por qué gritas ?
Respuesta: ¡ Porque no quiero jalapeñooooooos en mi bocadillo !
So, the answer to your question is no. The eñe cannot be prolonged in jalapeño or even realized without what comes after it.
In spoken everyday Spanish, it is not customary to prolong consonants.
If you take a word like: la nena and you write: la nnnnnnena and prolong the n, you are actually realizing the sound neeeeena.
A technical answer from the Linguistics site on SE many moons later than this question:
Answer by Draconis:
6
Many consonant sounds can't be pronounced in isolation. Stops, for example, are defined by completely stopping the airflow—hence the name. And if there's not something else going on at the same time (like air being allowed to flow out through the nose), that sounds like complete silence.
So for consistency, consonants are usually demonstrated by putting them first before a vowel, and then between vowels: [Ca aCa]. The exact vowel used doesn't matter, but is conventionally low and central. [bolding mine]
