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Iota

This page is about the meaning, origin and characteristic of the symbol, emblem, seal, sign, logo or flag: Iota.

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Iota /aɪˈoʊtə/ (uppercase Ι, lowercase ι; Greek: Ιώτα) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J and the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), Je (Ј, ј), and iotated letters (e.g. Yu (Ю, ю)).

In the system of Greek numerals iota has a value of 10.

Iota represents the sound [i]. In ancient Greek it occurred in both long [iː] and short [i] versions, but this distinction was lost in Koine Greek.

Iota participated as the second element in falling diphthongs, with both long and short vowels as the first element. Where the first element was long, the iota was lost in pronunciation at an early date, and was written in polytonic orthography as iota subscript, in other words as a very small ι under the main vowel, for instance ᾼ ᾳ ῌ ῃ ῼ ῳ. The former diphthongs became digraphs for simple vowels in Koine Greek.

The word is used in a common English phrase, 'not one iota', meaning 'not the slightest amount', in reference to a phrase in the New Testament (Matthew 5:18): "until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, (King James Version: '[not] one jot or one tittle') will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Mt 5:18) This refers to iota, the smallest letter, or possibly Yodh, י, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

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Graphical characteristics:
Asymmetric, Open shape, Monochrome, Contains curved lines, Has no crossing lines.

Category: Alphabets.

Iota is part of the Greek alphabet group.

More symbols in Greek alphabet:

The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the first alphabetic script to have distinct letter… read more »

More symbols in Alphabets:

An alphabet is a standard set of letters (basic written symbols or graphemes) that is used to write one or more languages based on the general principle that the letters represent phonemes (basic sig… read more »

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