I, the Sütterlin letter i

History

The letter I is the 9th letter of the German alphabet. Phonetically, it represents a close front unrounded vowel, occurring as long /iː/ in words like 'Igel' and short /ɪ/ in words like 'in' or 'Kind'.

Sütterlin lowercase i is a single upright stroke in the middle zone with a clear dot positioned directly above it. Capital I is written with an upright loop and a vertical stem resting on the baseline, designed to be easily mastered by Prussian primary school children.

Historically in German handwriting and typography, I and J were treated as variants of the same letter. In older parish registers and municipal citizen lists, names starting with I and J are regularly filed together under a single index heading, reflecting centuries of unified orthographic tradition.

I began as the sign for a hand with an arm.^[1] As early as the seventh century BC Greek iota had lost all its additions and become a simple vertical stroke,^[2] and neither the Etruscan nor the Latin alphabet changed it much after that.^[3]