[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 dot is called a *tittle* and is used to distinguish them from other lower-case letters. For example a lower case l can look exactly like a lower-case i without the tittle.