Long i (Latin:i longum or[littera] i longa), written⟨ꟾ⟩, is a variant of theletter i found in ancient andearly medieval forms of the Latin script.

In inscriptions dating to the earlyRoman Empire, it is used frequently but inconsistently to transcribe thelong vowel/iː/. In Gordon's 1957 study of inscriptions, it represented this vowel approximately 4% of the time in the 1st century CE, then 22.6% in the 2nd century, 11% in the 3rd, and not at all from the 4th century onward,^[1] reflecting a loss ofphonemic vowel length by this time (one of thephonological changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance). In this role it is equivalent to the (also inconsistently-used)apex, which can appear on any long vowel:⟨á é í ó v́⟩/aːeːiːoːuː/. An example would be⟨fIliI⟩, which is generally spelledfīliī today, usingmacrons rather than apices to indicate long vowels. On rare occasions, an apex could combine with long i to form⟨Í⟩, e.g.⟨dÍs·mánibus⟩.

The long i could also be used to indicate the semivowel [j], e.g.⟨IVSTVS⟩ or⟨CVIIVS⟩,^[2] the latter also⟨CVIVS⟩, pronounced[ˈjus̠tus̠,ˈkujːus̠]. It was also used to write a closeallophone[i] of the short i phoneme, used before another vowel, as in⟨CLAVDIO⟩, representing[ˈklau̯.di.oː].^[3]

Later on in the late Empire and afterwards, in some forms ofNew Roman cursive, as well as pre-Carolingian scripts of theEarly Middle Ages such asVisigothic orMerovingian, it came to stand for the vowel⟨i⟩ in word-initial position. For example,⟨iNponuntin umeroſ⟩, which would beinpōnunt in umerōs in modern spelling.

The character exists in Unicode as U+A7FElatin epigraphic letter i longa,⟨ꟾ⟩, having been suggested in a 2006 proposal.^[4]

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  Roman inscription,ca.AD 100, showing long i's contrasting with apices on other vowels, for exampleórnámentIs in line 3 (besides other words), representing the vowel/iː/.
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  Roman inscription,ca.AD 45, showing a use of the long i letter for the close[i] sound of Latin short ĭ before a vowel:claudIo.
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  Roman inscription,ca.AD 69, showing a rare use of long i with an apex in line 1,dÍs mánibus.
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  Roman letter inOld Roman cursive,ca.AD 50 fromClaudius' reign, showing handwritten long i's:rebus iis ·iúdicibus (line 2),imponátur qui ·intrá (line 3).
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  Manuscript samples inNew Roman cursive from the 6th century. Top:quantum s(upra)s(cripto) emptoriinterfuerit. Bottom:tenentesigitur palestini.
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  Manuscript samples in Merovingian script fromca.AD 700. Top:etinponuntin umeros hominum. Bottom:in synagogis · et salutationisin foro.
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  Codex Vigilanus, from the late10th century in Visigothic script, folio 22v, preface of Vigila the scribe (pictured). The first line contains three examples of long i:in exordioigitur hui[u]s.

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