Long I

Long I is a special version of the letter I used in old times. It looks different from the I we use today and was part of the Latin script, the writing system many languages use.

People wrote Long I as ⟨ꟾ⟩, and it had its own name in Latin: i longum or littera i longa. This special letter helped writers express sounds and ideas in their books.

Long I is not the same as the regular capital I, the letter J, or a similar-looking letter called palochka used in some other writing systems. It is a unique part of history that shows how writing has changed over time.

History

In early Roman Empire times, a special form of the letter i was used to show a longer sound. It appeared in writings, then was used more, but stopped being used later. This happened because the way people said words changed.

Sometimes this special i was used like another mark called an apex. For example, the word for “sons” was once written as ⟨fIliI⟩ but is now written as fīliī. Later, this special i began to show the regular i sound at the start of words.

In Unicode

The special letter "i" called "i longa" is part of a writing system called Unicode. Its code is U+A7FE, and it looks like this: ⟨ꟾ⟩. It was suggested to be added to Unicode in 2006.

Examples

Here are some examples of the long i letter from old writings. In a Roman inscription from around AD 100, you can see long i used in words like órnámentIs. Another inscription from around AD 45 shows long i in the word claudIo. From around AD 69, there is a rare example where long i appears with an apex in the word dÍs mánibus.

In handwritten letters from around AD 50 during Claudius time, long i appears in phrases like rebus iis · iúdicibus. Samples from the 6th century in New Roman cursive show long i in words such as _quantum s(upra)s(cripto) emptori interfuerit _. From around AD 700 in Merovingian script, long i is seen in phrases like et inponunt in umeros hominum.

In a book called Codex Vigilanus from the late 10th century written in Visigothic script, the first line has three examples of long i: in exordio igitur hui[u]s.