In fact, the actual last letter is not even close to the end of the alphabet.
Do You Know the Last Letter Added to the Alphabet? (It Wasn’t Z)
Updated on Sep. 27, 2024
The alphabet is one of the first things we learn. Thatās why when you read āA B C D E F G,ā you sing The Alphabet Song in your head. (Donāt kid yourself, we know you do.) However, this doesn’t mean that you know everything about the alphabet. For example, you probably think the last letter added to the alphabet was “Z”āand yet, it actually wasn’t. Here are more interesting facts like this that will blow your mind.
Yet that alphabet could have been drastically different. It used to have six more letters that were eventually dropped. And in a perfect example of irony, the alphabet we know today was not created alphabetically. āZā may be the last letter in alphabetical order, but the last letter added to our alphabet was actually āJ.ā
In the Roman alphabet, the English alphabetās father, āJā wasnāt a letter. It was just a fancier way of writing the letter āIā called a swash. When lowercase āiās were used as numerals, the lowercase ājā marked the end of a series of ones, like āXIIJā or āxiijā for 13. Both letters were used interchangeably to write the vowel sound /i/ (like the āiā in igloo) and the consonant sound /j/ (like the āyā in yes).
Then along came Gian Giorgio Trissino, a grammarian who wanted to reform Italian linguistics. In 1524, he wrote an essay that identified āIā and āJā as two separate letters. āIā distinguished the aforementioned vowel, and āJā became a consonant that probably sounded more like the ājā in Beijing. Others later adopted his use of āJ,ā but Romance languages altered its pronunciation to the ājā weāre familiar with (as in jam). If this sounds interesting, you might like the story behind the letter “w”, too.
The first English book to explain the difference between the two letters was published in 1633, and the rest is linguistic history. If not for good olā Trissino, then jolly Jack and joyful Jill couldnāt jump and juggle in the jungle while jostling Joe for his banjo. What a sad world that would be. Next, check out the fascinating facts about every letter in the English alphabet.
