Newest letters

Until about 1600, there was no clear distinction in the English alphabet between the letters ‘i’ and ‘j’, or ‘u’ and ‘v’. After 1600, ‘i’ and ‘u’ came to represent vowels only, while ‘j’ and ‘v’ became consonants. Even as recently as the 19th century, some dictionaries did not distinguish between ‘i’ and ‘j’ and in Alexander Cruden’s Concordance to the Holy Scriptures (1815), the next word after I is Jacinth, while Joyous is followed by Iron. Information from Archives (e.g. 1996).
Submitted for use in Scholastic's Modern Marvels.