View source for Tittle

{{short description|Diacritical mark, the dot of the letters i and j}}
{{Distinguish|Tilde|Title}}
{{For|the surname|Tittle (surname)}}
[[Image:Tittles.svg|right|thumb|150px|Lowercase i and j in [[Liberation fonts|Liberation Serif]], with tittles in red]]
The '''tittle''' or '''superscript dot'''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140227092219/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/is-there-a-name-for-the-dot-above-the-letters-i-and-j Oxford Dictionaries Online (US) — Is there a name for the dot above the letters i and j?]</ref> is the dot on top of [[lowercase]] ''i'' and ''j''. In English writing the tittle is a diacritic which only appears as part of these glyphs, but [[dot (diacritic)|diacritic dot]]s can appear over other letters in various languages. In most languages, the tittle of ''[[i]]'' or ''[[j]]'' is omitted when a diacritic is placed in the tittle's usual position (as [[í]] or [[ĵ]]), but not when the diacritic appears elsewhere (as [[į]], [[J with stroke|ɉ]]).

==Use==
The word ''tittle'' is rarely used.<ref>[https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=tittle&year_start=1900&year_end=2007&corpus=15&smoothing=0&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctittle%3B%2Cc0 nGram: tittle].</ref> One notable occurrence is in the [[King James Bible]] at [[Matthew 5:18]]: "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" ([[KJV]]). The quotation uses "jot and tittle" as examples of extremely small graphic details in "the Law", presumably referring to the Hebrew text of the Torah. In English the phrase "jot and tittle" indicates that every small detail has received attention.

The [[Greek language|Greek]] terms translated in English as "jot" and "tittle" in Matthew 5:18 are ''iota'' and ''keraia'' ({{langx|el|κεραία}}).<ref>[http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/strongs.pl?strongs=2503 Blue Letter Bible].</ref> [[Iota]] is the smallest letter of the [[Greek alphabet]] (ι);<ref>Although, in majuscule texts ''iota'' is not smaller than the other Greek letters. See John P.&nbsp;Meier, ''Law and History in Matthew's Gospel: A Redactional Study of Mt. 5:17–48'' (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1976), 56 n.&nbsp;20.</ref> the even smaller [[iota subscript]] was a medieval innovation. Alternatively, ''iota'' may represent [[yodh]] (י), the smallest letter of the [[Hebrew_alphabet|Hebrew]] and [[Aramaic alphabet]]s (to which ''iota'' is related).<ref>See David N. Bivin and Joshua N. Tilton, "[https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/14487/ The Significance of Jesus' Words 'Not One Jot or One Tittle Will Pass from the Law' (Matt. 5:18)]" on JerusalemPerspective.com.</ref> "Keraia" is a hook or [[serif]], and in Matthew 5:18 may refer to Greek diacritics, or, if the reference is to the Hebrew text of the Torah, possibly refers to the pen strokes that distinguish between similar Hebrew letters, e.g., ב ([[Bet_(letter)|Bet]]) versus כ ([[Kaph]]),<ref>See Origen, ''Selecta in Psalmos'' (ed. Migne, 12:1068).</ref> or to ornamental pen strokes attached to certain Hebrew letters,<ref>Meier, ''Law and History in Matthew's Gospel'', 52.</ref> or to the Hebrew letter [[Waw_(letter)|Vav]], since in Hebrew ''vav'' also means "hook".<ref>Günther Schwarz, "ἰῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία (Matthäus 5 18)", ''Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft'' 66.3–4 (1975): 268–269. ([https://wholestones.org/%e1%bc%b0%e1%bf%b6%cf%84%ce%b1-%e1%bc%93%ce%bd-%e1%bc%a2-%ce%bc%ce%af%ce%b1-%ce%ba%ce%b5%cf%81%ce%b1%ce%af%ce%b1-matt-518/ English translation]).</ref> "Keraia" in Matt. 5:18 cannot refer to vowel marks known as [[Niqqud]], which developed later than the date of Matthew's composition. Others have suggested that "Keraia" refers to markings in cursive scripts of languages derived from Aramaic, such as [[Syriac language|Syriac]], written in [[Syriac alphabet#West Syriac Ser.E1.B9.AD.C4.81|Serṭā]] ({{Script/Serto|ܣܶܪܛܳܐ}}, 'short line').<ref>[http://www.dukhrana.com/peshitta/analyze_verse.php?lang=en&verse=Matthew+5:18&source=ubs&font=Estrangelo+Edessa&size=125% Grammatical analysis of Syriac Peshitta]. Gospel of Matthew, verse 5:18.</ref> In printing modern [[Greek numerals]] a keraia is used.

Tittles also exist in [[Cyrillic]].{{Citation needed |date=August 2023}}

==Dotless and dotted i==
{{See also|İ|Dotless I|Ligature (writing)|Minim (palaeography)}}

[[File:Gaeltacht Donegal cropped.jpg|thumb|Example of the dotless ''i'' on an Irish road sign]]
[[File:Alexandre de Rhodes - Dictionarium Annamiticum (1651) - c.34 - cropped on bí and bỉ.png|thumb|''Bí'' without a tittle and ''bỉ'' with a tittle in the Middle Vietnamese dictionary ''Dictionarium Annamiticum'']]
[[File:Bánh mì with tittle.jpg|thumb|''Mì'' with a tittle on Vietnamese signage]]
[[File:I acute - soft dotted and Lithuanian dot.svg|thumb|I with acute and hard dot in Lithuanian and Vietnamese]]

A number of alphabets use dotted and dotless 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]] {{IPA|[ɯ]}}, while "İ" / "i", with the inclusion of a tittle even on the capital letter, represents the [[close front unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|[i]}}. This practice has carried over to several other [[Turkic languages]], like the [[Azerbaijani alphabet]], [[Crimean Tatar alphabet]], and [[Tatar alphabet]].

In some of the Dene languages of the [[Northwest Territories]] in Canada, specifically [[Slavey language|North Slavey, South Slavey]], [[Dogrib language|Tłı̨chǫ]] and [[Chipewyan language|Dëne Sųłıné]], all instances of ''i'' are undotted to avoid confusion with tone-marked vowels ''í'' or ''ì''. The other Dene language of the Northwest Territories, [[Gwichin language|Gwich’in]], always includes the tittle on lowercase ''i''.

There is only one letter I in [[Irish language|Irish]], but ''i'' is undotted in the traditional [[uncial]] [[Gaelic type|Gaelic script]] to avoid confusion of the tittle with the [[Dot (diacritic)#Overdot|''buailte'' overdot]] found over [[consonant]]s. [[Irish orthography#Alphabet|Modern texts]] replace the ''buailte'' with the letter ''h'', and use the same [[Antiqua script|antiqua]]-descendant fonts, which have a tittle, as other Latin-alphabet languages.  [[Road signs in Ireland|Bilingual road signs]] formerly used dotless i in lowercase Irish text to better distinguish ''i'' from ''[[í]]''.  The letter "j" is not used in Irish other than in foreign words.

In most Latin-based orthographies, the lowercase letter ''i'' conventionally has its dot replaced when a diacritical mark atop the letter, such as a tilde or caron, is placed. The tittle is sometimes retained in some languages. In some [[Baltic languages]] sources, the lowercase letter ''i'' sometimes retains a tittle even when accented.<ref name="Wells 2001">{{cite journal |title=Orthographic Diacritics and Multilingual Computing |first=John C. |last=Wells |journal=[[Language Problems and Language Planning]] |location=[[Amsterdam]] |publisher=[[John Benjamins Publishing Company]] |volume=24 |issue=3 |year=2001 |issn=0272-2690 |url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/dia/diacritics-revised.htm |quote=A further complication is the convention of removing the dot from '''i''' and '''j''' when adding a diacritic over them, as in '''í''', '''ì''', '''î''', '''ĵ'''. In the Baltic countries, however, the dot is sometimes retained in these circumstances. }}</ref> In [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] in the 17th century,<ref name="De Rhodes 1641">{{cite book |title=Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum |first=Alexander |last=de Rhodes |author-link=Alexander de Rhodes |publisher=[[Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples|Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith]] |location=Rome |year=1651 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AdHAAAAcAAJ }}</ref> the tittle is preserved atop ''ỉ'' and ''ị'' but not ''ì'' and ''í'', as seen in the seminal ''quốc ngữ'' reference ''[[Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum]]''. In modern Vietnamese, a tittle can be seen in ''ì'', ''ỉ'', ''ĩ'', and ''í'' in cursive handwriting and some signage. This detail rarely occurs in computers and on the Internet, due to the obscurity of language-specific fonts. In any case, the tittle is always retained in ''ị''.

A particular and unique variant is in the [[:File:Johnston_Sans,_Old_&_New_comparison.jpg|Johnston typeface]], long employed by and proprietary to the Transport for London organisation and its associates, in print and notices, where above a certain point size the dot (and full stop) are diamond shaped, this being among the most distinguishing features of the font.

==Phrases==
* It is thought that the phrase "to a T" is derived from the word tittle because long before "to a T" became popular, the phrase "to a tittle" was used.<ref>[http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-toa2.htm Where did the phrase "to the T" come from?]</ref>
* The phrase "[[wikt:dot the i's and cross the t's|to dot the i's and cross the t's]]" is used figuratively to mean "to put the finishing touches to" or "to be thorough".

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*[http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=tittle Dictionary.com&nbsp;– Tittle]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Hard-dotted letters}}

*[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2356669 Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon]
*[http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=345730 "Tittle" on Everything2]

{{Typography terms}}

[[Category:Diacritics]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]