Latin iota (majuscule: Ɩ, minuscule: ɩ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter iota (ι).

Ɩ
Ɩ ɩ
Upper and lower case Latin iota
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic and Logographic
In UnicodeU+0196, U+0269
History
Development
  • Ɩ ɩ
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Sample "Ɩɩ" from various typefaces.

It was formerly used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent [ɪ] (the vowel in English "bit"). It was replaced by a small capital I (ɪ) in 1989, but it can still be found in use in some later works. Other variations are used for phonetic transcription:[1] ⟨ᵼ⟩, ⟨ᶥ⟩.

Ɩ has been adopted as a letter in the alphabets of some African languages, such as Gurunɛ, Kabiyé or Mossi. Its capital form has a hook to distinguish it from capital I. The accented italic form ɩ is very often indistinguishable from the italic letter small I i in serif fonts.

References

edit
  1. ^ Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF).