Editing Iota subscript (section)

{{short description|Diacritic mark in the Greek alphabet}}

[[File:Greek iota placement 01.svg|thumb|right|160px|Iota subscripts in the word {{lang|grc|ᾠδῇ}}, ("''[[ode]]''", dative)]]

The '''iota subscript''' is a [[diacritic]] mark in the [[Greek alphabet]] shaped like a small vertical stroke or miniature [[iota]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|grc|ι}}}} placed below the letter. It can occur with the [[vowel]] letters [[eta]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|grc|η}}}}, [[omega]] {{angle bracket|ω}}, and [[alpha]] {{angle bracket|{{lang|grc|α}}}}. It represents the former presence of an {{IPA|[i]}} [[Semivowel|offglide]] after the vowel, forming a so‐called "long [[diphthong]]". Such diphthongs (i.e., {{lang|grc|ηι, ωι, ᾱι}})—phonologically distinct from the corresponding normal or "short" diphthongs (i.e., {{lang|grc|ει, οι, ᾰι}} )—were a feature of [[ancient Greek]] in the [[Archaic Greece|pre-classical]] and [[Classical Greece|classical]] eras.

The offglide was gradually lost in pronunciation, a process that started already during the classical period and continued during the [[Hellenistic period]], with the result that, from approximately the 1st century BC onwards, the former long diphthongs were no longer distinguished in pronunciation from the simple long vowels (long [[Monophthong|monophthongs]]) {{lang|grc|η, ω, ᾱ}} respectively.<ref>{{cite book |first=Roger D. |last=Woodard |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |chapter=Attic Greek |year=2008 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-46932-6 |page=19 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPEENAEp938C&pg=PA19 }}</ref> 

During the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] eras, the iota, now [[Silent letter|mute]], was sometimes still written as a normal letter but was often simply left out. The iota subscript was invented by [[Byzantine literature|Byzantine philologists]] in the 12th century AD as an editorial symbol marking the places where such spelling variation occurred.<ref>{{cite book|first=Bradley H.|last=McLean|year=2011|title=New Testament Greek: an introduction|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=20}}</ref><ref name="metzger">{{cite book|first=Bruce Manning|last=Metzger|year=1981|title=Manuscripts of the Greek bible: an introduction to Greek palaeography|url=https://archive.org/details/manuscriptsgreek00bruc|url-access=limited|place=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/manuscriptsgreek00bruc/page/n38 28]|isbn=978-0-19-502924-6}}</ref><ref name="Sihler">{{cite book|first=Andrew L.|last=Sihler|year=2008|title=New comparative grammar of Greek and Latin|place=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=59}}</ref>

The alternative practice, of writing the mute iota not under, but next to the preceding vowel, is known as ''iota [[adscript]]''. In mixed-case environments, it is represented either as a slightly reduced iota (smaller than regular lowercase iota), or as a full-sized lowercase iota. In the latter case, it can be recognized as iota adscript by the fact that it never carries any diacritics (breathing marks, accents). 

In uppercase-only environments, it is represented again either as slightly reduced iota (smaller than regular lowercase iota), or as a full-sized uppercase Iota. In digital environments, and for linguistic reasons also in all other environments, the representation as a slightly reduced iota is recommended.{{By whom|date=April 2023}} There are [[Unicode]] codepoints for all Greek uppercase vowels with iota adscript (for example, {{unichar|1FBC|GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH PROSGEGRAMMENI}}), allowing for easy implementation of that recommendation in digital environments.