[ELI5] Why is there a dot over the i and j in the alphabet?

Question

I studied German when I was in school and the Umlaut (hope I spelled it right) was used over vowels to change the tone of it or how it’s used. Did it ever have that effect when used in English?

In: 6

Answer 1

The Umlaut is two dots, like this: äöüÄÖÜ

The dots on i and j used to be necessary to better differentiate these letters from the surrounding ones.