The parts of the human body also played an important part in giving form
to the letters of the alphabet. The early peoples recognized the value
of the hand and the head and these members gave rise to the letters I
and K, and Q and R respectively. The hand in profile bent at the
knuckles and wrist gives us the character “yod” (the hand) as used by
the Phoenicians. The Greeks, who always liked to have their words end in
vowels, added “a” and called it “Iota” (e-oˊta). When the Romans
received it, it was simply a vertical stroke, I (ee) which represented
the same long “e” sound as it did with the Greeks, but later they used
it both as a consonant and vowel, differentiating the consonant by
making the letter I longer, J; but they did not give a distinct letter
form for the capital J until the sixteenth century.
The small j came into being nearly a century later. The dot over the i
was first introduced in a thirteenth century manuscript.
K
The silhouette of the open hand, with its radiating lines, discloses the
origin of the letter K, “kaph,” which signified hollow or palm. We know
that palmistry was practiced by the ancients, and probably the
association of reading the hand and writing influenced the inclusion of
this character. The Greeks added their favorite vowel sound, “a,” again
and thus obtained their “Kappa.” The Romans had no need for this letter
at first, as C furnished the same sound. When they did accept it, they
made no change.
L
The ox goad or whip lash, “lamed” (lahˊmed) gave rise to the next
letter. Herding oxen and sheep was the important occupation of the
slaves of the Phoenicians and hence the last, an object so unfamiliar to
us, was easily recognized by them. The Greeks again added an “a” and
called it “lambda” and made it in the form of an inverted V. The Romans,
strangely, adhered more closely to the original form than did the
Greeks.