I i. This letter represents, in Latin, I. The vowel whose short and long sounds are heard in the English word deceit.
—II. Before a, e, o, or u in the same syllable, the consonant which begins the English words yam, yes, yon, you. The character J, j, which represents the latter sound in some school-books, is an invention of the seventeenth century, and is not found in MSS., nor in the best texts of the Latin authors.