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MARK Twain

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  • 25-02-2006 1:22pm
    #1
    Ichiro
    Closed Accounts Posts: 423 ✭✭


    "one cannot, and I repeat, Cannot appreciate true literature without knowing what the dot over the letter 'i' is called"
    i think i should know, can anybody fill this information void.
    cheers.


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    #2
    Jim10000
    Closed Accounts Posts: 217 ✭✭Jim10000


    I just googled it and got 'tittle' ?!?!?!?


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    #3
    gogo
    Registered Users Posts: 1,452 ✭✭✭gogo


    TITTLE

    A tittle is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot over an i. It 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 in a Bible verse, Matthew 5:18 (NKJV): "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." The quotation uses them as an example of extremely minor details. The phrase "jot and tittle" indicates that every small detail has received attention. A variant is "jot and jittle". In the Greek original translated as English "jot and tittle" is found "iota" and "keraia". 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. 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. Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon for keraia is here: [1]

    In the modern Turkish alphabet, the tittle is an actual diacritical mark distinguishing two different phonemes, appearing even on top of capital letters: I / ı, with the absence of a tittle, representing the sound [ɯ], and İ / i, with the inclusion of a tittle, representing .

    It is thought that the phrase "to a T" is derived from this word.


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