Turkish dotted and dotless I
Encyclopedia
Turkish alphabet
The Turkish alphabet is a Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy...
, which is a variant of the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, includes two distinct versions of the letter I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
, one dotted and the other dotless. The difference between the two versions is modelled after the letters Ö
Ö
"Ö", or "ö", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut to denote the front vowels or . In languages without umlaut, the character is also used as a "O with diaeresis" to denote a syllable break, wherein its pronunciation remains an unmodified .- O-Umlaut...
and Ü
Ü
Ü, or ü, is a character which can be either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter U with an umlaut or a diaeresis...
, which were taken from German. These two letters represent front-vowel
Front vowel
A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
variants of the letters O
O
O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a...
and U
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
, which are back vowel
Back vowel
A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
s. The Turkish alphabet extends this usage to I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
as well, creating a version with a dot to represent a front vowel, and a version without a dot to represent a back vowel:
The undotted I, I ı, denotes the close back unrounded vowel
Close back unrounded vowel
The close back unrounded vowel, or high back unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . Typographically a turned letter m, given its relation to the sound represented by the letter u it...
sound (/ɯ/). Neither the upper nor the lower case version has a dot.
The dotted I, İ i, denotes the close front unrounded vowel
Close front unrounded vowel
The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
sound (/i/). Both the upper and lower case versions have a dot.
Examples:
- İstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
/isˈtanbuɫ/ (starts with an i sound, not an ı). - DiyarbakırDiyarbakırDiyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...
/dijaɾˈbakɯɾ/ (the first and last vowels are spelled and pronounced differently)
In contrast, the Turkish alphabet uses the letter "j" the same way as in other Latin scripts, with the tittle
Tittle
A tittle is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot on a lowercase i or j. The tittle is an integral part of the glyph of i and j, but diacritic dots can appear over other letters in various languages...
only on the lower case character: J j.
Consequence for ligatures
In some font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
s, if the lower-case letters "fi" are placed adjacently, the dot-like upper end of the "f" would fall inconveniently close to the dot of the "i", and therefore a ligature
Ligature (typography)
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
is provided with the top of the "f" extended to serve as the dot of the "i". A similar ligature for "ffi" is also possible. Since the unligatured forms are unattractive and the ligatures make the "i" dotless, such fonts are not appropriate for setting Turkish. However, the fi ligatures of some fonts do not merge the letters and instead space them next to each other, with the dot on the i remaining. Such fonts are appropriate for Turkish, but the writer must be careful to be consistent in the use of ligatures.
In computing
In UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, is a lower case letter dotless i (ı). U+0130 (İ) is capital i with dot. ISO-8859-9 has them at positions 0xDD and 0xFD respectively. In normal typography, when lower case i is combined with other diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s, the dot is generally removed before the diacritic is added; however, Unicode still lists the equivalent combining sequences as including the dotted i, since logically it is the normal dotted i character that is being modified.
Most Unicode software uppercases ı to I and lowercases İ to i, but, unless specifically set up for Turkish, it lowercases I to i and uppercases i to I. Thus uppercasing then lowercasing, or vice versa, changes the letters.
In the Microsoft Windows SDK, beginning with Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, several relevant functions have a NORM_LINGUISTIC_CASING flag, to indicate that for Turkish and Azerbaijani locale
Locale
In computing, locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, country and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface...
s, I should map to ı and i to İ.
In the LaTeX
LaTeX
LaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
typesetting language the dotless i can be written with the backslash-i command:
\i. The İ can be written using the normal accenting method (i.e. \.{I}).Dotless i (and dotted capital I) is handled problematically in the Turkish locales of several software packages, including Oracle DBMS, Java, and Unixware 7, where implicit capitalization of names of keywords, variables, and tables has effects not foreseen by the application developers. The C or US English locales do not have these problems.
Many cellphones available in Turkey (as of 2008) lack a proper localization, which leads to replacing “ı” by “i” in SMS
Short message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...
, sometimes severely distorting the sense of a text. In one instance, a miscommunication led to the deaths of Emine and Ramazan Çalçoban in 2008. A common substitution is to use the character 1 for dotless ı.
Usage in other languages
Dotted and dotless "i" are used in several other writing systems for Turkic languages:- AzerbaijaniAzerbaijani languageAzerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
: The Azerbaijani Latin alphabetAzerbaijani alphabetIn the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani alphabet refers to a Latin alphabet used for writing the Azerbaijani language. This superseded a previous versions based on Cyrillic and Arabic scripts....
used in AzerbaijanAzerbaijanAzerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
is modeled after Turkish since 1991. - KazakhKazakh languageKazakh is a Turkic language which belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic languages, closely related to Nogai and Karakalpak....
: The Kazakh alphabetKazakh alphabetThe Kazakh alphabets are the alphabets used to write the Kazakh language. The Kazakh language uses the following alphabets:* The Cyrillic script is officially used in the Republic of Kazakhstan and Bayan-Ölgiy Province in Mongolia...
as used in KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
is Cyrillic; however, several Romanization schemes exist. Dotted and dotless I, in addition to I with diaraesis (Ï) are employed in the Latin script versions of the Kazakh WikipediaKazakh WikipediaThe Kazakh Wikipedia is a Wikipedia in the Kazakh language. It started in June 2002. The Kazakh wikipedia has a very high growth rate, going from 7000 articles to 100,000 in 1 year period. Its unique feature is that it is written in three different scripts: Cyrillic, Latin, and Arabic. On 26...
and of several governmental websites. The main website of the government of Kazakhstan and the national information agency KazInform-QazAqparat offer Turkish-like Latin script along with official Cyrillic one. - TatarTatar languageThe Tatar language , or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan Khanate, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria...
: The Tatar alphabetTatar alphabetTwo scripts are currently used for the Tatar language: Cyrillic and Latin.-Introduction:While a Tatar version of the Latin alphabet called Jaŋalif had been in use during the 1930s, there is controversy in the matter of Latin-based Tatar alphabet for İdel-Ural Tatar. One dimension of the...
in Russia is officially Cyrillic due to the requirements of Russian federal law. Several Romanization schemes exist, which are often used on the Internet and some printed publication. Most of them are modelled in different ways on Turkish and employ dotted and dotless I, while some also use I with acute (Í), although for different phonemes. - Crimean TatarCrimean Tatar languageThe Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria...
: The Latin alphabetLatin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
is officially used for the Crimean Tatar languageCrimean Tatar languageThe Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria...
and does use both dotted and dotless I letters. Cyrillic script is still used in daily life in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, but is not the official script for the language. - In IrishIrish languageIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, see Tittle.
See also
- TittleTittleA tittle is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic or the dot on a lowercase i or j. The tittle is an integral part of the glyph of i and j, but diacritic dots can appear over other letters in various languages...
: the dot above "i" and "j" in most of the Latin scripts - YeryYeryYery or Yeru is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. It represents the phoneme after non-palatalised consonants in the Belarusian and Russian alphabets...
(ы) — a letter used to represent ɯ in Turkic languages with Cyrillic script, and the similar ɨ in Russian.