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Tac-I-Turn: Did You Know The Dot On Top of The Letters "I" and "J" Is Called A "Tittle"?

The document defines and provides context for the word "tittle", which is the small dot seen over lowercase "i" and "j" letters. It notes that the tittle is an integral part of those glyphs but can also be a diacritic mark over other letters. Most languages omit the tittle when another diacritic is in its usual position, such as í or ĵ, but not when the diacritic is elsewhere.

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Janice Dollosa
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54 views2 pages

Tac-I-Turn: Did You Know The Dot On Top of The Letters "I" and "J" Is Called A "Tittle"?

The document defines and provides context for the word "tittle", which is the small dot seen over lowercase "i" and "j" letters. It notes that the tittle is an integral part of those glyphs but can also be a diacritic mark over other letters. Most languages omit the tittle when another diacritic is in its usual position, such as í or ĵ, but not when the diacritic is elsewhere.

Uploaded by

Janice Dollosa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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tac-i-turn Did you know the dot on top of the letters

“i” and “j” is called a “tittle”?


/ˈta-sə-ˌtərn/

adj. 1 temperamentally disinclined to talk. 2


Reserved or
uncommunicative in speech. A tittle or superscript dot is a small
distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot
[Fr. taciturne. L. taciturnus – from tacitus] on a lowercase i or j. The tittle is an integral part
of the glyph of i and j, but diacritic dots can
We first find "taciturn" in a satiric drama written in 1734 by James Miller, a British
appear over other letters in various languages. In
clergyman educated at Oxford. A character describes a nephew thus: "When he was
little, he never was what they call Roguish or Waggish, but was always close, quiet, most languages, the tittle of i or j is omitted when
and taciturn." It seems we waited unduly long to adopt this useful descendent of the a diacritic is placed in the tittle's usual position
verb tacēre, meaning "to be silent" - we were quicker to adopt other words from the (as í or ĵ), but not when the diacritic appears
"tacēre" family. We’ve been using "tacit," an adjective meaning "expressed without
words" or "implied," since the mid-17th century. And we’ve had the noun taciturnity,
elsewhere (as į, ɉ).
meaning "habitual silence," since at least 1450.

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