Inked Letters

This lovely fragment from a full alphabet in ink and water was created by Ruslan Khasanov. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind all week. It's dreamy, ephemeral, and exquisite.

No J

I am currently reading Timothy Donaldson's Shapes For Sounds and am once again reminded that had I not been born when I was, I would not have had my name. J is the youngest letter of the Latin alphabet—only 300 years old against it's 2,700 year old counterparts.

Were we ancient Greeks, or Romans, my parents wouldn't have been able to name me Jesse. The Italians eventually used j as a long i—a consonant. And perhaps the ij ligature explains why Spanish-speaking people frequently pronounce my name Yesse. J, in fact, was minuscule first, and later made into a capital. Another letter trajectory that makes my monogram rather distinctive.