I is the ninth letter of the alphabet used for the modern English language. It is also used in a number of other languages, including French, German, and Spanish.
The letter I is the third of the English vowel letters (see Vowel ). I can have the sound known as long I, as in bite, or short I, as in fit. The letter I can represent the sound known as long E, as in machine. It can also have other sounds in letter combinations, as in the Y sound in the word onion.
Scholars believe the letter I evolved from an Egyptian hieroglyph (pictorial symbol) that represented a hand. Hieroglyphs were adapted to be used for a Semitic language by around 1500 B.C. The alphabet for this Semitic language—the earliest known alphabet—is called Proto-Sinaitic. By 1100 B.C., an alphabet for another Semitic language, Phoenician, had evolved from Proto-Sinaitic. See Semitic languages .
The Phoenician letter that can be traced to the Egyptian hand hieroglyph is the 10th letter of the Phoenician alphabet, yod. The Phoenicians used the letter to represent the beginning Y sound of yod, which was their word for hand. When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician alphabet around 800 B.C., they used the letter, which they named iota, for the long I sound of the vowel. The Etruscans adopted the Greek alphabet about 700 B.C., and the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet around 650 B.C. Both the Romans and the Etruscans continued to use the letter to represent the sound of a long I.
See also Alphabet .
