U+03CA "ϊ" Greek Small Letter Iota with Dialytika Unicode Character

U+03CA "ϊ" Greek Small Letter Iota with Dialytika is a variant of the Greek letter iota that features two dots, or a diaeresis, placed above it. This diacritical mark, known as the dialytika, indicates that the iota should be pronounced separately from a preceding vowel, rather than forming a diphthong, which is particularly important for correct pronunciation and clarity in written Greek. The character is used in both modern and ancient Greek orthography, appearing in words where the iota follows another vowel and requires distinction, such as in the word "προϊόν" (product). It belongs to the Greek and Coptic block in Unicode and serves as a distinct codepoint separate from the plain iota (U+03B9), ensuring that text encoding preserves the specific grammatical and phonetic function of the diacritic.