[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

Almost certainly not, it almost certainly came about to help people distinguish the i from other letters that look similar in the cursive writing in medieval manuscripts, and the j split off from the i after the dot appeared.