Abstract
The paper traces the long and complicated history of the grapheme representing /j/ in Czech. It explores the origins of this usage in Medieval Latin, its medieval and Early Modern history and its end in the mid-19th century.
It explains the reasons why other graphemes (especially and ) competed with in the same function, namely the Medieval Latin tradition and specific phonetic features of Czech [j] in different positions. It describes the rules for the distribution of these graphemes, both followed by the printers of 15th- to 19th-century Czech Bibles, and proposed by selected pre-1842 grammars and textbooks.
To complete the picture, also the graphemes representing the rather rare phoneme /g/ ( or ) and their influence on the plausibility of representing /j/ are discussed. Finally, the reasons for the switch to the modern usage (, formerly a sign for /i:/, standing for /j/, for /g/ and for /i:/) in 1842 are introduced and evaluated, together with the reasons for the failure of previous reform proposals.
The aim is to show that a detailed analysis of a seemingly narrow problem may help to elucidate various aspects of the linguistic thinking of different epochs, as well as the role of changing cultural practices and foreign influences.