Dotted and dotless I facts for kids
The dotted and dotless I are two special letters found in the Turkish alphabet. What makes them unique is that one has a dot above it, and the other does not. This is true for both the big (capital) and small (lower case) versions of the letters.
Imagine the letter 'I' you know. In Turkish, there are two kinds:
- İ, i (dotted I): This one has a dot, just like the 'i' you use in English.
- I, ı (dotless I): This one looks like a regular 'I' or 'i' but without any dot, even the small version.
These two letters make different sounds in Turkish. The dotted İ (like in İstanbul) sounds like the 'i' in "machine." The dotless I (like in Diyarbakır) sounds more like the 'u' in "but" or the 'i' in "bird."
Why are they important?
These two letters are very important because they help Turkish speakers tell words apart. Even though they look similar, they change the meaning and pronunciation of words. For example, the city of İstanbul starts with the dotted İ sound, not the dotless I sound. Another example is Diyarbakır, where the first and last vowel sounds are spelled and pronounced differently using these two letters.
Where else are they used?
The Turkish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, which is the same alphabet English uses. Some other Turkic languages that also use the Latin alphabet, like Azerbaijani and Tatar, also use both the dotted and dotless 'I'. This shows how these languages share some common features.
However, in all these languages, including Turkish, the letter 'J' is different. The capital 'J' (J) never has a dot, but the small 'j' (j) always has one, just like in English and many other languages. There's even a special dotless 'j' (ȷ) that exists in computer systems, but it's not used in everyday writing.
Images for kids
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Error when displaying dotted İ as a dotless I while translating from Turkish to Polish
