{"id":2603,"date":"2016-11-06T17:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T16:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2025-12-17T14:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:29:21","slug":"the-gothic-letters-i-and-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/the-gothic-letters-i-and-j\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gothic letters &#8220;i&#8221; and &#8220;j&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When trying to read\u00a0Gothic handwriting or a printed text accurately transcribed,\u00a0the letters <strong>i<\/strong> and <strong>j<\/strong> may sometimes cause a little confusion.<!--more-->Reading Gothic handwriting can be a challenge for many, -myself included. In an attempt to get better at this I shared\u00a0a &#8220;study&#8221; I\u00a0did in Gothic handwriting. You might\u00a0want to have a look at these 5 articles starting at <a href=\"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/gothic-handwriting\/\">https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/index.php\/2016\/02\/02\/gothic-handwriting\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You might also want to familiarize you with the Norwegian Languages. I have tried to give a little introduction <a href=\"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/norway-a-mix-of-languages\/\">in the article found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In this short article I want to look at a problem that was illustrated\u00a0by a question on a genealogy group I belong to. The problem is simple: Up until the first part of the 1700&#8217;s the letters<strong> i<\/strong> and <strong>j<\/strong> were used interchangeably (Tretvik 1993:11). Even though Tretvik mentions &#8220;the first part of the 1700&#8217;s&#8221; I have seen it occure in a large part of the 1700&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Most often the letter<strong> j<\/strong> was exchanged for the letter <strong>i<\/strong>. This happens when the letter appear in front of a vowel.<\/p>\n<p>We can look at some words frequently appearing in the 1701 Census (manntall):<\/p>\n<p>The exchange takes place after a single consonant, in front of a vowel<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tiener\u00a0 <\/strong>If you look up this word in a dictionary you will not find it. If you exchange the <strong>i<\/strong> for a <strong>j<\/strong> you get <strong>tjener <\/strong>and your dictionary will tell you it means <em>servant<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ki\u00f8bmand <\/strong>This is a Danish word.\u00a0It will not appear in a Danish Dictionary. If you search for <strong>Kj\u00f8bmand <\/strong>you will learn that it means <em>Merchant.<\/em>\u00a0The corresponding Norwegian word is <strong>Kj\u00f8pmann.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Field<em>\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>Another Danish word. Following the same procedure we get the word <strong>Fjeld <\/strong>meaning <em>mountain<\/em>. The Norwegian word is <strong>Fjell.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Giestgiver <\/strong>\u2192 <strong>Gjestgiver = Innkeeper<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Fiord \u2192 Fjord<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ieg \u2192 Jeg\u00a0 = <\/strong>personal pronoun\u00a0<strong>I<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Hiemme \u2192 Hjemme\u00a0<\/strong>=\u00a0<strong>At home<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also in place names this phenomenon appear.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Skieberg <\/strong>If you follow my suggestions in <a href=\"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/find-norwegian-place-names\/\">&#8220;Find Norwegian place names&#8221;<\/a>, and search the website &#8220;Se eiendom&#8221; \u00a0you will not find the name. If you search for <strong>Skjeberg <\/strong>you get several hits.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Skierstad \u2192 Skjerstad<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ki\u00f8llefiord \u2192 Kj\u00f8llefjord<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In person names it may appear like<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Bi\u00f8rn \u2192 Bj\u00f8rn<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Giertrud \u2192 Gjertrud<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sometimes a <strong>j <\/strong>is used instead of an <strong>i\u00a0<\/strong>in front of a consonant.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ejnar \u2192 Einar<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ejlert\u00a0\u2192 Eilert<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ajna \u2192 Aina<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2615\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/martinroe.com\/blog\/the-gothic-letters-i-and-j\/synnj-olsd\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/martinroe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Synnj-Olsd.jpg?fit=122%2C98&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"122,98\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"synnj-olsd\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/martinroe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Synnj-Olsd.jpg?fit=122%2C98&amp;ssl=1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2615 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/martinroe.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Synnj-Olsd.jpg?resize=122%2C98&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"synnj-olsd\" width=\"122\" height=\"98\" \/>Sometimes a <strong>j <\/strong>is used instead of an <strong>i <\/strong>at the end of a name.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"hiddenSpellError\">Signj<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/strong>This looks strange, even to us Norwegians, but exchanging the <strong>j<\/strong> for an <strong><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"hiddenGrammarError\">i<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>, we get the name <strong><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"mceItemHidden\"><span class=\"hiddenSpellError\">Signi,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> that is recognisable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unnj \u2192 Unni<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Anthonj \u2192 Anthoni<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Rannej \u2192 Rannei<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Tollej \u2192 Tollei<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Synnj \u2192 Synni<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are a few words where you may think there has been a letter exchange e.g. Skien, Skiaker and Grieg.\u00a0These are, however, written and read this way.<\/p>\n<p>This is just a few examples of words with\u00a0<strong>i<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>j<\/strong>\u00a0exchange you may encounter. There is no set rules. If you have trouble finding a translation for a word containing <strong>i\u00a0<\/strong>or\u00a0<strong>j<\/strong>, you may try to look for a possible exchange.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Sources:<\/p>\n<p>Tretvik, Aud Mikkelsen: \u00a0<em>Gotisk skrift : l\u00e6rebok med tekster fra 1485 til 1875.<\/em> Trondheim : Tapir, 1993<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"tableRow\">\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_header\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_data\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_data\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_data\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_data\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_header\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- Utgave --><\/p>\n<div>\u00a0<!-- Publisert --><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_header\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"preview_metadata_data\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When trying to read\u00a0Gothic handwriting or a printed text accurately transcribed,\u00a0the letters i and j may sometimes cause a little<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Gothic letters \"i\" and \"j\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gothic-handwriting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Gothic letters &quot;i&quot; 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