In Italian the circumflex accent is an optional accent. While the accent itself has many uses, with the letter "i" it is only used while forming the plural of male nouns ending in in order to minimize both ambiguity and the stressing of the wrong syllable: (principle) has the plural , and (prince) has as plural. In this situation it can be replaced with a double "i" (E.g. "principii" ), with an i followed by a j (E.g. "principij"), with a single j (E.g. "principj") or, more simply, with a single "i" (E.g. "principi"). In contemporary usage, the single "i" is mostly used and the other variants are seen as archaic and overly formal.
