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The expression 'not one jot or tittle' is also interesting, 'jot' being of course the Englished term for 'iota', the Greek (undotted) letter 'i'. In other words, less than the smallest letter no matter what you call it or how you write it. But of course, you all knew that anyway .... Happy New Year -- joanna ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Collett" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 8:22 AM Subject: Re: For Robin Hamilton (1) > As far as I understand it, the tittle is not strictly a diacritical mark > in that it doesn't modify the sound of the letter beneath. It was first > used in Latin manuscripts in the ??eleventh?? century to distinguish the > letter 'j' from strokes of surrounding letters and has subsequently > appeared on the derivative 'i' in English. > > But, of course, Ask the Profs, > > Roger > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 2:49 AM > Subject: Re: For Robin Hamilton (1) > > >> And when the profs chime in, maybe they can tell us when the tittle began >> to cap the i and whose doing it was. It's our only diacritical. >>