[analphilosopher] Keith Burgess-Jackson: Ambrose Bierce

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Posted by Keith Burgess-Jackson:
Ambrose Bierce
http://www.analphilosopher.com/posts/1154213580.shtml


   J is a consonant in English, but some nations use it as a vowel--than
   which nothing could be more absurd. Its original form, which has been
   but slightly modified, was that of the tail of a subdued dog, and it
   was not a letter but a character, standing for a Latin verb, jacere,
   "to throw," because when a stone is thrown at a dog the dog's tail
   assumes that shape. This is the origin of the letter, as expounded by
   the renowned Dr. Jocolpus Bumer, of the University of Belgrade, who
   established his conclusions on the subject in a work of three quarto
   volumes and committed suicide on being reminded that the j in the
   Roman alphabet had originally no curl.

   (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, c. 1911)