While reading about initials, I found the history of the letter J and B to be quite fascinating. Until reading the texts I was unaware that the letter J was one of the last letters to emerge, with it taking 1000 years to join the alphabet. It is interesting to think how before it was created, the letter Y and I were what was used for name like Julius or Jupiter (Iulius and Yupp-iter). This really makes me wonder what other names that use the letter J were actually spelt like and how they sounded. Before the reading I did not think of how each individual letter, never assuming that some morphed and separated from pre-existing letters. For some more interesting facts about J, the Britannica article of the letter discusses the evolution of the letter in more detail.
In contrast, the letter B has been around far longer. While I was aware of the Greek letter for Beta, I did not realize that it itself derives from Egyptian hieroglyphics. The letter B’s long history does match though, as it is a backbone letter for many words.
Both letter exemplify what we have discussed in class about the evolution of symbols and icons. The letter J and B both evolved from the symbols of two different letters, changing over time until the matched how we now know them. It is interesting to see how both letters evolved and eventually took up roles different from their initial forms.
I also think there is something entertaining to look at the history of my initials and see that one is super young while the other is incredibly old. A kind of duality of sorts.