# Long I

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Letter variant

Not to be confused with the Cyrillic letter [palochka](/source/Palochka), the Latin capital [I](/source/I), or the Latin [J](/source/J).

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**Long i** ([Latin](/source/Latin_language): *i longum* or *[littera] i longa*), written ⟨ꟾ⟩, is a variant of the [letter i](/source/I) found in ancient and [early medieval](/source/Early_Middle_Ages) forms of the Latin script.

## History

In inscriptions dating to the early [Roman Empire](/source/Roman_Empire), it is used frequently but inconsistently to transcribe the [long](/source/Vowel_length) vowel /iː/. In Gordon's 1957 study of inscriptions, it represented this vowel approximately 4% of the time in the 1st century CE, then 22.6% in the 2nd century, 11% in the 3rd, and not at all from the 4th century onward,[1] reflecting a loss of [phonemic](/source/Phonemic) vowel length by this time (one of the [phonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance](/source/Phonological_changes_from_Classical_Latin_to_Proto-Romance)). In this role it is equivalent to the (also inconsistently-used) [apex](/source/Apex_(diacritic)), which can appear on any long vowel: ⟨á é í ó v́⟩ /aː eː iː oː uː/. An example would be ⟨fIliI⟩, which is generally spelled *fīliī* today, using [macrons](/source/Macron_(diacritic)) rather than apices to indicate long vowels. On rare occasions, an apex could combine with long i to form ⟨Í⟩, e.g. ⟨dÍs·mánibus⟩.

The long i could also be used to indicate the semivowel [j], e.g. ⟨IVSTVS⟩ or ⟨CVIIVS⟩,[2] the latter also ⟨CVIVS⟩, pronounced [ˈjus̠tus̠, ˈkujːus̠]. It was also used to write a close [allophone](/source/Allophone) [i] of the short i phoneme, used before another vowel, as in ⟨CLAVDIO⟩, representing [ˈklau̯.di.oː].[3]

Later on in the late Empire and afterwards, in some forms of [New Roman cursive](/source/New_Roman_cursive), as well as pre-[Carolingian](/source/Carolingian_Empire) scripts of the [Early Middle Ages](/source/Early_Middle_Ages) such as [Visigothic](/source/Visigothic_script) or [Merovingian](/source/Merovingian_script), it came to stand for the vowel ⟨i⟩ in word-initial position. For example, ⟨**i**Nponunt **i**n umeroſ⟩, which would be *inpōnunt in umerōs* in modern spelling.

## In Unicode

The character exists in Unicode as U+A7FE latin epigraphic letter i longa, ⟨ꟾ⟩, having been suggested in a 2006 proposal.[4]

## Examples

		- Roman inscription, *ca.* [AD 100](/source/AD_100), showing long i's contrasting with apices on other vowels, for example órnáment**I**s in line 3 (besides other words), representing the vowel /iː/.

		- Roman inscription, *ca.* [AD 45](/source/AD_45), showing a use of the long i letter for the close [i] sound of Latin short ĭ before a vowel: claud**I**o.

		- Roman inscription, *ca.* [AD 69](/source/AD_69), showing a rare use of long i with an apex in line 1, d**Í**s mánibus.

		- Roman letter in [Old Roman cursive](/source/Old_Roman_cursive), *ca.* [AD 50](/source/AD_50) from [Claudius](/source/Claudius)' reign, showing handwritten long i's: *rebus i**i**s · **i**údicibus* (line 2), ***i**mponátur qu**i** · **i**ntrá* (line 3).

		- Manuscript samples in [New Roman cursive](/source/New_Roman_cursive) from the 6th century. Top: *quantum s(upra)s(cripto) emptori **i**nterfuerit*. Bottom: *tenentes **i**gitur palestini*.

		- Manuscript samples in Merovingian script from *ca.* [AD 700](/source/AD_700). Top: *et **i**nponunt **i**n umeros hominum*. Bottom: ***i**n synagogis · et salutationis **i**n foro*.

		- [Codex Vigilanus](/source/Codex_Vigilanus), from the late [10th century](/source/10th_century) in Visigothic script, folio 22v, preface of Vigila the scribe (pictured). The first line contains three examples of long i: ***i**n exordio **i**gitur hu**i**[u]s*.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Gordon, A. E. (1957). *Contributions to the Palaeography of Latin inscriptions*. p. 216.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Allen, Sydney (1978). *Vox Latina: The Pronunciation of Classical Latin* (2nd ed.). Gateshead, England: Athenaeum Press. pp. 37–39. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-521-22049-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-521-22049-1).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Allen, *Vox Latina*, pp. 51-52, giving the examples dIes, prIvsqvam, pIvs

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Davud J. Perry (2006-08-01). ["Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters to UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06269-add-roman.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2018-09-30.

## See also

- [Apex (diacritic)](/source/Apex_(diacritic))

v t e Latin script History Spread Romanization Roman numerals Ligatures Alphabets (list) Classical Latin alphabet ISO basic Latin alphabet Phonetic alphabets International Phonetic Alphabet X-SAMPA Spelling alphabet Letters (list) Letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Additional Latin letters Æ æ Ɑ ɑ Ʌ ʌ Ꞵ ꞵ Ð ð Ɛ ɛ Ə ə Ǝ ə Ɣ ɣ Ƣ ƣ Ɩ ɩ Ɥ ɥ Ꟛ ꟛ Ŋ ŋ Œ œ Ɔ ɔ Ɤ ɤ Kʼ ĸ Ʀ ʀ ẞ ß Ʃ ʃ Ɯ ɯ Ʊ ʊ Ꞷ ꞷ Ʋ ʋ Ƿ ƿ Ȝ ȝ ϴ θ Ʒ ʒ Ƹ ƹ Þ þ Ȣ ȣ Ꭓ ꭓ Ɂ ʔ ɂ ꟎ ʕ ꟏ ǀ ǁ ǂ ǃ ʘ ʻ ʼ Ꞌ ꞌ Ƨ ƨ Ꜫ ꜫ Ꜭ ꜭ Ƽ ƽ Ƅ ƅ 7 Letter I with diacritics Í í i̇́ Ì ì i̇̀ Ĭ ĭ Î î Ǐ ǐ Ï ï Ḯ ḯ Ĩ ĩ i̇̃ Į į Į́ į̇́ Į̃ į̇̃ Ī ī Ī̀ ī̀ Ỉ ỉ Ȉ ȉ I̋ i̋ Ȋ ȋ Ị ị Ꞽ ꞽ Ḭ ḭ Ɨ ɨ ᶖ 𝼚 İ i I ı Ь ь Ɪ ɪ Multigraphs Digraphs Ch Dz Dž Gh IJ Lj Ll Ly Nh Nj Ny Sh Sz Th Trigraphs dzs eau Tetragraphs ough Keyboard layouts (list) QWERTY QWERTZ AZERTY Dvorak Colemak BÉPO Neo Historical standards ISO/IEC 646 Western Latin character sets Current standards Unicode DIN 91379: Unicode subset for Europe Lists Precomposed Latin characters in Unicode Letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering List of typographical symbols and punctuation marks Diacritics Palaeography

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