TITTLE

i j
A 'tittle' is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot over an ''i'' or a ''j''.

Contents

History and usage

Dotless and Dotted I

Phrases

References

See also

Sources

External links

History and usage

The tittle first appeared in Latin manuscripts in the 11th century, to distinguish the letter ''i'' from strokes of nearby letters. Although originally a larger mark, it was reduced to a dot when Roman-style typefaces were introduced.
The only place a modern reader is apt to confront this word is during the introduction to the Antithesis of the Law in the Gospel of Matthew (5:18): "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (NKJV). The quotation uses them as an example of extremely minor details. The phrase "jot and tittle" indicates that every small detail has received attention.
The phrase is also used in the Terry Gilliam film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. When Baron Munchausen (John Neville) is introduced to Venus (Uma Thurman), he says that she is even more beautiful then Catherine the Great - Venus says he is flattering her, and he replies "not one jot, not one tittle".
In the Greek original translated as English "jot and tittle" is found iota and keraia.^[1] Iota is the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet (ι), but since only capitals were used at the time the Greek New Testament was written (Ι), it probably represents the Hebrew or Aramaic yodh (י) which is the smallest letter of the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets. "Keraia" is a hook or serif, possibly accents in Greek but more likely hooks on Hebrew or Aramaic letters, (ב) versus (כ), or additional marks such as crowns (as Vulgate ''apex'') found in the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, which are the first five books of the Jewish Bible. A keraia is also used in Greek numerals.
The standard reference for NT Greek is ''A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature'', Bauer, Gingrich, Danker, et al.

Dotless and Dotted I

A number of alphabets use dotted and dottless I, both upper and lower case.
In the modern Turkish alphabet, the absence or presence of a tittle distinguishes two different letters representing two different phonemes: the letter "I" / "ı", with the absence of a tittle also on the lower case letter, represents the close back unrounded vowel , while "İ" / "i", with the inclusion of a tittle even on the capital letter, represents the close front unrounded vowel .
In the latest Latin based Kazakh alphabet, there are also dotted and dotless letter i and I for different sounds.
It should be noticed that when an I or J receive a accent mark, the tittle is replaced.

Phrases

★ It is thought that the phrase "to a T" is derived from this word.^[2]

★ The phrase "to dot ones i's and cross one's t's" is used to mean either to be thorough or to be pedantic.

References

1. Blue Letter Bible
2. Where did the phrase "to the T" come from?

See also

★ Dot

★ Titlo

★ Tilde

★ Inherently funny words

Sources

★ Dictionary.com — Tittle

★ Not One "Jot or Tittle"

External links

★ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon