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the alphabet
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can anyone tell me what the dot above the letter i is called
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Although several sources support the previous responses, several others of usually a scholarly bent are insistent that: "...The dot is just called Superscript Dot.. It was added to the letter i in the Middle Ages to distinguish the letter (in manuscripts) from adjacent vertical strokes in such letters as u, m and n. J is a variant form of i which emerged at this time and subsequently became a separate letter..." This particular source (one of many) is English for Students... Take your pick, it seems...
The dot above an �i or �j' and the cross on a �t' may be called either a �jot' or a �tittle'.
A jot - from the Greek letter �iota' = �i' - means the least part of any writing. It can be applied to dots, strokes, Spanish tildes etc. A tittle is defined as a small stroke or point in writing. The two words are, effectively, synonyms, even though they are usually now combined in the phrase "not a jot or tittle".
There is a tendency to suppose that the jot is somehow tied to the dot, because a dot is what the letter �i' has and they share the �i' sound via the original word �iota'. By the same token, the tittle is often supposed to relate to the stroke on the �t', presumably because they share a �t' sound. However, either can be used for the i/j-dot or the t-stroke, really, or any other such mark.
A jot - from the Greek letter �iota' = �i' - means the least part of any writing. It can be applied to dots, strokes, Spanish tildes etc. A tittle is defined as a small stroke or point in writing. The two words are, effectively, synonyms, even though they are usually now combined in the phrase "not a jot or tittle".
There is a tendency to suppose that the jot is somehow tied to the dot, because a dot is what the letter �i' has and they share the �i' sound via the original word �iota'. By the same token, the tittle is often supposed to relate to the stroke on the �t', presumably because they share a �t' sound. However, either can be used for the i/j-dot or the t-stroke, really, or any other such mark.
Actually, the word dot was not applied to the mark we are discussing here until the middle of the 18th century. Before that, in English, a dot was no more than the head of a boil, a lump or a speck of colour!
Both jot and tittle - equally English - have been used to mean precisely the same thing since the early 16th century...ie they've been around and part of our language for a heck of a lot longer than dot has!
But even if they hadn't, what's wrong with having a variety of ways of expressing our ideas? Its richness is one of English's major glories...let's leave it that way rather than try to narrow it down, eh?
Both jot and tittle - equally English - have been used to mean precisely the same thing since the early 16th century...ie they've been around and part of our language for a heck of a lot longer than dot has!
But even if they hadn't, what's wrong with having a variety of ways of expressing our ideas? Its richness is one of English's major glories...let's leave it that way rather than try to narrow it down, eh?
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