The Final Piece Of The English Alphabet
Did you know? One letter from the alphabet had a surprisingly late arrival. For centuries, it didn’t exist as its own character. It was more of a stylistic flourish than a formal letter, sharing duties (and shapes) with another vowel you know well.
That letter? J. It wasn’t officially recognized as distinct from I until 1524, when an Italian grammarian, Gian Giorgio Trissino, gave it a sound and identity of its own—making it the final letter to be added to the English alphabet. Before that, people used the same symbol for both letters, and context determined how it was read. Thanks to Trissino, we now have a proper J, a letter that gave us joyful additions like “jacket”, “jar”, and “joke”.
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