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2023-02-04 20:37 dustin  
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"i" and "j" stand next to each other, have very similar shapes and only one of them occurs in the greek alphabet. however, ^ remembers that "e" and "f" had the very same propetries and still weren't related. but this time, the clues aren't misleading - "i" and "j" really are sisters, sharing a big part of their histories! furthermore, "j" holds a special record inside the latin alphabet!  
  
history of the letter "i"  
  
| the root was likely an egyptian hieroglyph for an arm with hand. this glyph was spoken like a kind of "voiced [h]" because the egyptian word for „arm“ started with that sound. It sounds quite funny to me and hard to describe, so here's the wikipedia article on this sound with audio sample:  
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_pharyngeal_fricative" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_pharyngeal_fricative</a>  
  
| the glyph was somewhat simplified for the proto-sinaitic letter, where the outlines of the arm and the hand were still visible (see left ΟΟΟ shape). the letter was now spoken like the „y“ at the start of english words such as „yes“. (in the phonetic alphabet, this sound is actually written [j] because of its origins, but i'm just going to call it the „yes“-[y] sound for more clarity). the sound change probably happened because the semitic word for "arm" started with that "yes-[y]" sound.  
  
| the phoenicians further geometrized the shape of the letter and called it "yodh" (arm), it was the ninth letter in their alphabet, just as "i" in the modern latin alphabet.  
  
| it was the ancient greeks who deleted all the side lines from the letter, leaving just a single vertical line. so their letter "iota" already had the same super-simple form as today. as for the sound, the greeks needed vowels for their alphabet (which the phoenicians didn't have), so they turned the "yes"-[y] sound into the related vowel [i] which sounds very similar (like the „y“ at the end of english words such as „baby“).  
  
| no further significant form or sound changes by the etruscians, and the romans, too, adopted the letter without any changes at first.  
  
history of the letter "j":  
  
| however, the romans now had a phoenetic problem: their latin language used the „yes“-[y] sound, but they had no letter for it because the letter „i“ was reserved for the [i] sound. They helped themselves by using the letter „i“ for both sounds. For example, the name of the famous roman emperor was written „ivlivs caesar“ where the first „i“ is spoken like the „yes“-[y] and the second one is spoken [i]. (btw, both „v“ are spoken as the „ou“ in „you“, so they were actually vowels!)  
  
| The letter „j“ was never part of the Roman alphabet! It appeared only later, and at first it was a pure alternative form of „i“ without seperate meaning or sound.  It was only in the middle ages when an explicite distinguation between „I“ and „J“ was first suggested and used, and it took until the 19th century until such distinguation was officially accepted and „J“ was finally added to the alphabet as a seperate letter. So, in fact, „j“ is actually the youngest letter in the alphabet! :d  
  
| i haven't done research about the following, but i think that the late official acceptance of the letter „j“ is also the main reason why this letter sounds so differently in different languages. for example, it sounds completely different in english words like „jungle“, german words like „ja“ and spanish words like „juego“! These and many more languages had long been developped from latin before the letter „j“ had been added to the alphabet, and when it finally was, each language had a different use for the new letter!  
  
So here's the list of the five youngest letters so far:  
1. „j“ - 19th century a.d.  
2. ?  
3. ?  
4. ?  
5. „g“ - 3rd century b.c.  
Any ideas/ guesses (or knowledge) which are the other three letters? Keep following the series for the answers! :d  
  
Cave difficulty: 3/10

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2023-02-04 20:37 kozelX  
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very NICE :)

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2023-02-04 20:51 dustin  
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thx  Kozelx ! :d  
  
i forgot to mention that the middle ΟΟΟ shape shows the phoenician letter "yodh".

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2023-02-05 14:33 Arno  
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Brilliant mix of classic caves i an j! :-D

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2023-02-05 18:43 dustin  
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thx  Arno  :d

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2023-02-07 17:32 dustin  
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i just discovered a small mistake: "yodh" was not the ninth phoenician letter, but the tenth. the ninth was "teth" which became greek "theta" (spoken like english "th"). this letter was not adopted into the latin alphabet.  
  
overwiev over the phoenician letters so far (phoenician - greek - latin):  
1. aleph (ox) - alpha - a  
2. bayt (house) - beta - b  
3. gimel (boomerang) - gamma - c,g  
4. daleth (fish/door) - delta - d  
5. he (jubilance/window) - epsilon - e  
6. waw (club/hook) - digamma (later deleted) - f  
7. [will occur later in the series!]  
8. heth (fence) - (h)eta - h  
9. thet (wheel) - theta - n/a  
10. yodh (arm) - iota - i,j