How “J” was the last letter added to the alphabet

You might think the alphabet’s always been the way it is now. But that’s not true. Letters joined the alphabet at different times, and some of them came along much later than you’d expect, including the letter “J.” So why was this the last letter added to the alphabet? Let’s find out the truth.

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In medieval writing, i and j weren’t separate

In the Middle Ages, scribes didn’t see “i” & “j” as different letters because there was just one symbol doing both jobs. Any time that they needed to make the last “i” in a Roman numeral stand out, they’d stretch the tail down & leave it like that. They’d write the number 23 as “xxiij” for 23, which is where the j-shape came from.

Trissino’s 1524 proposal split i and j

The story then moves to Renaissance Italy. This is where Giangiorgio Trissino began adjusting the alphabet, and in 1524, he wrote a pamphlet about it. He suggested that the vowel “i” & consonant “j” should finally get their own letters. However, it took a while for his ideas to catch on through reprints & scholars across Europe.

Printers normalized the distinction

English printers also had their role in changing things. By the 1600s, more of them started setting “i” & “j” as separate letters, especially at the start of words, although some of the presses did hang on to the old habits. It took a few decades for the newer style to become the norm in printed books.

The 1611 King James Bible still printed “Iesus”

One of the most obvious examples of that old style lives in the first edition of the King James Bible. After all, it contains names like “Iesus,” “Iuda,” & “Iohn,” which look like typos to a modern reader. But that’s just how things were. “J” hadn’t officially become a letter yet, so “I” was used in its place.

Grammar books flagged the shift

Soon after, grammar writers like Charles Butler began talking about how English spelling was changing. They wrote about how “i” & “j” were becoming separate letters in everyday language, and some of these books included spelling rules to keep things consistent. It says a lot about how common the confusion had become.

English gave j the sound through French loans

Interestingly, the sound we connect to “j” today didn’t actually start in English. It came with French words like “joy” & “jewel” that have that soft /dʒ/ sound. Later, English adopted the sound & kept the spelling before eventually pairing it with the letter “j.” But the split wasn’t totally settled. Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary still included “I” & “J” in one section.

France’s 1694 academy dictionary drew a line

The Académie française printed its first dictionary in 1694. In it, they clearly spelled out that i and j were two different letters in their system, although this wasn’t meant to change pronunciation. They were simply trying to define how the alphabet should look on paper going forward.

Spanish rules in 1815 gave j the /x/ sound

Things went a different way in Spain. The Real Academia Española published new spelling rules in 1815 that officially stated that j made the /x/ sound, as before that, x sometimes carried it. That was rather confusing. However, the update didn’t erase older spellings entirely, but instead created the modern rule.

The 1769 Oxford KJV created modern spellings

In 1769, Oxford University handled a major Bible revision, which is when spellings across the entire King James text were cleaned up. Words like “Jesus” replaced older forms such as “Iesus.” Those changes stuck. Soon enough, this version became the one that most people actually saw, whether in church or at home.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary called j the tenth letter

Noah Webster’s dictionary also affected how Americans thought about language. Near the start, he listed J as the tenth letter of the alphabet, while also mentioning the history of I and J. Including this detail was important. Now, it was clear that J was officially part of the alphabet on its own, no question.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article: