Long i ( or '' itterai longa''), written , is a variant of the letter i found in ancient and

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

forms of the Latin script.

History

In inscriptions dating to the early

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, it is used frequently but inconsistently to transcribe the long vowel . In Gordon's 1957 study of inscriptions, it represented this vowel approximately 4% of the time in the 1st century CE, then 22.6% in the 2nd century, 11% in the 3rd, and not at all from the 4th century onward, reflecting a loss of phonemic vowel length by this time (one of the phonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance). In this role it is equivalent to the (also inconsistently-used) apex, which can appear on any long vowel: . An example would be , which is generally spelled today, using macrons rather than apices to indicate long vowels. On rare occasions, an apex could combine with long i to form , e.g. . The long i could also be used to indicate the semivowel e.g. or , the latter also , pronounced . It was also used to write a close

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...

of the short i phoneme, used before another vowel, as in , representing . Later on in the late Empire and afterwards, in some forms of New Roman cursive, as well as pre- Carolingian scripts of the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

such as

Visigothic The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

, it came to stand for the vowel in word-initial position. For example, , which would be in modern spelling.

In Unicode

The character exists in Unicode as U+A7FE , , having been suggested in a 2006 proposal.

Examples

Scriptura con apices Nimes 1750.jpg, Roman inscription, ''ca.''

AD 100 __NOTOC__ In the Roman Empire, it was sometimes referred to as year 853 ''ab urbe condita'', i.e., 853 years since the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. The denomination AD 100 for this year has been used since the Early Middle Ages, when the An ...

, showing long i's contrasting with apices on other vowels, for example in line 3 (besides other words), representing the vowel . Ara a Tibério Cláudio MNArqueologia.tif, Roman inscription, ''ca.'' AD 45, showing a use of the long i letter for the close sound of Latin short ĭ before a vowel: . Roman grave inscription, AD 69, long i with apex.jpg, Roman inscription, ''ca.''

AD 69 AD 69 (Roman numerals, LXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Roman consul, consulship of Galba and Titus Vinius, Vinius (or, less frequently, year 822 ''Ab urbe ...

, showing a rare use of long i with an apex in line 1, . I_littera_in_manuscripto.jpg, Roman letter in Old Roman cursive, ''ca.'' AD 50 from

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...

' reign, showing handwritten long i's: ''rebus iis · iúdicibus'' (line 2), ''imponátur qui · intrá'' (line 3). New Roman Cursive i longum, 6th century.png, Manuscript samples in New Roman cursive from the 6th century. Top: ''quantum s(upra)s(cripto) emptori interfuerit''. Bottom: ''tenentes igitur palestini''. Lectionnaire de Luxeuil i longum 80v 81r.png, Manuscript samples in Merovingian script from ''ca.'' AD 700. Top: ''et inponunt in umeros hominum''. Bottom: ''in synagogis · et salutationis in foro''. Codex Vigilanus, Vigila scriba, folio 22v.jpg, Codex Vigilanus, from the late

10th century The 10th century was the period from 901 (represented by the Roman numerals CMI) through 1000 (M) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the last century of the 1st millennium. In China, the Song dynasty was established, with most of C ...

in Visigothic script, folio 22v, preface of Vigila the scribe (pictured). The first line contains three examples of long i: ''in exordio igitur hui ''.

History

In Unicode

Examples

References

See also