J - Use in English

Use in English

In English J most commonly represents the affricate /dʒ/ (as in jet). In Old English the phoneme /dʒ/ was represented orthographically as cg or cȝ. Under the influence of Old French, which had a similar phoneme deriving from Latin /j/, English scribes began to use i (later j) to represent word-initial /dʒ/ of Old English (for example, iest, later jest), while using dg elsewhere (for example, hedge). Later many other uses of i (later j) were added in loan words from French and other languages (e.g. adjoin, junta). The first English-language book to make a clear distinction between i and j was published in 1634. In loanwords such as raj, "J" may be pronounced /ʒ/ by some, but not all, speakers. In some such cases, including raj, Taj Mahal and others, the regular /dʒ/ is actually closer to the original sound of the foreign language, making this realization a hyperforeignism. Occasionally J represents other sounds, as in Hallelujah which is pronounced the same as "Halleluyah" (See the Hebrew yud for more details).

In English, J is the fourth least frequently used letter in words, and is more frequent than Z, Q and X. J is quite common in proper nouns.