J: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Tenth letter of the Latin alphabet}}

|phonemes=[{{IPAlink|j}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|dʒ}}]~[{{IPAlink|tʃ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|x}}~{{IPAlink|h}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ʒ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ɟ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ʝ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|dz}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|tɕ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|gʱ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|t}}]~[{{IPAlink|dʑ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ʐ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|ʃ}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|c|c̬}}]<br>[{{IPAlink|i}}]<br>{{IPAc-en|dʒ|eɪ}}<br>{{IPAc-en|dʒ|aɪ}}

}}

'''J''', or '''j''', is the tenth [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] in the [[Latin alphabet]], used in the [[English alphabet|modern English alphabet]], the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is [[English alphabet#Letter names|''jay'']] (pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|dʒ|eɪ}}), with a now-uncommon variant ''jy'' {{IPAc-en|'|dʒ|aɪ}}.<ref name="j-oed">"J", ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' 2nd edition (1989)</ref><ref>"J" and "jay", ''Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1993)</ref> When used in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] for the [[palatal approximant|voiced palatal approximant]], it may be called ''yod'' or ''jod'' (pronounced {{IPAc-en|'|j|ɒ|d}} or {{IPAc-en|'|j|oʊ|d}}).<ref>{{OED|yod}}</ref>

== History ==

The letter ''J'' used to be used as the [[swash (typography)|swash]] letter ''I'', used for the letter I at the end of [[Roman numerals]] when following another I, as in XXIIJ or xxiij instead of XXIII or xxiii for the Roman numeral twenty-three. A distinctive usage emerged in [[Middle High German]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://germazope.uni-trier.de/Projects/WBB/woerterbuecher/lexer/selectarticle?lemid=LJ00001|title=Wörterbuchnetz|access-date=22 December 2016}}</ref> [[Gian Giorgio Trissino]] (1478–1550) was the first to explicitly distinguish I and J as representing separate sounds, in his ''Ɛpistola del Trissino de le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua italiana'' ("Trissino's [[epistle]] about the letters recently added in the [[Italian language]]") of 1524.<ref>''[[:s:it:De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana|De le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana]]'' in Italian [[Wikisource]].</ref> Originally, 'I' and 'J' were different shapes for the same letter, both equally representing {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/iː/}}, and {{IPA|/j/}}; however, [[Romance languages]] developed new sounds (from former {{IPA|/j/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}}) that came to be represented as 'I' and 'J'; therefore, [[English language|English]] J, acquired from the [[French language|French]] J, has a sound value quite different from {{IPA|/j/}} (which represents the initial sound in the English language word "''y''et").

== Pronunciation and use ==

|+List of pronunciations

! colspan="5" |Most common pronunciation: {{IPAslink|j}} ''Languages in italics do not use the [[Latin alphabet]]''

!Language

!Dialect(s)

!Pronunciation

([[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]])

!Environment

!Notes

! colspan="2" |[[Afrikaans]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Albanian language|Albanian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! rowspan="4" |''[[Arabic]]''

![[Modern Standard Arabic|Standard]]; most dialects

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|Latinization

![[Gulf Arabic|Gulf]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|Latinization

![[Sudanese Arabic|Sudanese]], [[Omani Arabic|Omani]], [[Yemeni Arabic|Yemeni]]

|{{IPAslink|ɟ}}

|

|Latinization

![[Levantine Arabic|Levantine]], [[Maghrebi Arabic|Maghrebi]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|Latinization

! colspan="2" |[[Azerbaijani language|Azeri]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

! rowspan="6" |[[Basque language|Basque]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Trask, R. L. (Robert Lawrence), 1944-2004.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34514667|title=The history of Basque|date=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-13116-2|location=London|oclc=34514667}}</ref>

![[Biscayan dialect|Bizkaian]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

![[Navarro-Lapurdian dialect|Lapurdian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|also used in southwest Bizkaian

![[Navarro-Lapurdian dialect|Low Navarrese]]

|{{IPAslink|ɟ}}

|

|also used in south Lapurdian

![[Upper Navarrese dialect|High Navarrese]]

|{{IPAslink|ʃ}}

|

|

![[Gipuzkoan dialect|Gipuzkoan]]

|{{IPAslink|x}}

|

|also used in east Bizkaian

![[Souletin dialect|Zuberoan]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Catalan language|Catalan]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}} or {{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Czech language|Czech]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Danish language|Danish]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Dutch language|Dutch]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[English language|English]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Esperanto]]

|{{IPAslink|j}} or {{IPAslink|i̯}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Estonian language|Estonian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |[[Filipino language|Filipino]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

| English loan words

|{{IPAslink|h}}

|

| Spanish loan words

! colspan="2" |[[Finnish language|Finnish]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[French language|French]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[German language|German]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Greenlandic language|Greenlandic]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |''[[Hindi]]''

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |''[[Hokkien]]''

|{{IPAslink|dz}}~{{IPAslink|dʑ}}

|

|

|{{IPAslink|z}}~{{IPAslink|ʑ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Igbo language|Igbo]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Italian language|Italian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Japanese language|''Japanese'']]

|{{IPAslink|dʑ}}~{{IPAslink|ʑ}}

|

|{{IPAslink|ʑ}} and {{IPAslink|dʑ}} distinct in some dialects, see ''[[Yotsugana]]''

! colspan="2" |[[Khmer language|''Khmer'']]

|{{IPAslink|c}}

|

|[[Romanization of Khmer#ALA-LC Romanization Tables|ALA-LC]] latinization

! colspan="2" |[[Kiowa language|Kiowa]]

|{{IPAslink|t}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Konkani language|''Konkani'']]

|{{IPAslink|ɟ}}

|

|

! rowspan="4" |[[Korean language|''Korean'']]

! rowspan="2" |[[North–South differences in the Korean language|North]]

|{{IPAslink|ts}}

|

|

|{{IPAslink|dz}}

|after vowels

|

!rowspan="2" |[[North–South differences in the Korean language|South]]

|{{IPAslink|tɕ}}

|

|

|{{IPAslink|dʑ}}

|after vowels

|

! colspan="2" |[[Kurdish language|''Kurdish'']]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |[[Luxembourgish]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|Some loan words

! colspan="2" |[[Latvian language|Latvian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

!colspan="2" |[[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

!colspan="2" |[[Malay language|Malay]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Maltese language|Maltese]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! rowspan="2" |[[Mandarin Chinese|''Mandarin'']]

! rowspan="2" |[[Standard Chinese|Standard]]

|{{IPAslink|tɕ}}

|

|[[Pinyin]] latinization

|{{IPAslink|ʐ}}

|

|[[Wade–Giles]] latinization

! colspan="2" |[[Manx language|Manx]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Oromo language|Oromo]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |''[[Pashto]]''

|{{IPAslink|dz}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Polish language|Polish]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Romanian language|Romanian]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Scottish Gaelic|Scots]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Shona language|Shona]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Slovak language|Slovak]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Slovenian language|Slovenian]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Somali language|Somali]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

|-

! rowspan="2" |[[Spanish language|Spanish]]

![[Standard Spanish|Standard]]

|{{IPAslink|x}}

|

|

|-

!Some dialects

|{{IPAslink|h}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Swahili language|Swahili]]

|{{IPAslink|ɟ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Swedish language|Swedish]]

|{{IPAslink|j}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Tamil language|''Tamil'']]

|{{IPAslink|dʑ}}

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" |[[Tatar language|Tatar]]

|{{IPAslink|ʐ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Telugu language|''Telugu'']]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Turkish language|Turkish]]

|{{IPAslink|ʒ}}

|

|

! colspan="2" |[[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

!colspan="2" |[[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]

|{{IPAslink|ɟ}}

|

|

!colspan="2" |[[Zulu language|Zulu]]

|{{IPAslink|dʒ}}

|

|

}}</ref> (equivalent to {{angbr|cg}}, as {{angbr|ᵹ}} in Old English was simply the regular form of the letter G, called [[Insular G]]). Middle English scribes began to use {{angbr|i}} (later {{angbr|j}}) to represent word-initial {{IPA|/dʒ/}} under the influence of [[Old French]], which had a similarly pronounced phoneme deriving from Latin {{IPA|/j/}} (for example, '''''i'''est'' and later '''''j'''est''), while the same sound in other positions could be spelled as {{angbr|dg}} (for example, ''he'''dg'''e'').<ref name="hogg" /> The first [[English language]] books to make a clear distinction in writing between {{angbr|i}} and {{angbr|j}} were the [[King James Bible]] 1st Revision Cambridge 1629 and an English grammar book published in 1633.<ref>English Grammar, Charles Butler, 1633</ref>

=== Other languages ===

==== Germanic and Eastern-European languages ====

The great majority of [[Germanic languages]], such as [[German language|German]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], use {{angbr|j}} for the [[palatal approximant]] {{IPAslink|j}}, which is usually represented by the letter {{angbr|y}} in English. Notable exceptions are [[English language|English]], [[Scots language|Scots]] and (to a lesser degree) [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]]. {{angbr|j}} also represents {{IPAslink|j}} in [[Albanian language|Albanian]], and those [[Uralic languages|Uralic]], [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] and [[Baltic languages]] that use the Latin alphabet, such as [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Serbo-Croatian]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Slovenian language|Slovenian]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]. Some related languages, such as Serbo-Croatian and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], also adopted {{angbr|j}} into the [[Je (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic alphabet]] for the same purpose. Because of this standard, the [[lower case]] letter was chosen to be used in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] as the phonetic symbol for the sound.

==== Romance languages ====

Generally, ⟨j⟩ is not commonly present in modern standard [[Italian language|Italian]] spelling. Only proper nouns (such as [[Jesi]] and [[Letojanni]]), [[Latin]] words ([[Juventus]]), or those borrowed from foreign languages have {{angbr|j}}. The proper nouns and Latin words are pronounced as the [[palatal approximant]] {{IPAslink|j}}, while words borrowed from foreign languages tend to follow that language's pronunciation of {{angbr|j}}. Until the 19th century, {{angbr|j}} was used instead of {{angbr|i}} in [[diphthong]]s, as a replacement for final ''-ii'', and in vowel groups (as in ''Savoja''); this rule was quite strict in official writing. {{angbr|j}} is also used to render {{IPAslink|j}} in dialectal spelling, ''e.g.'' [[Romanesco dialect]] {{angbr|ajo}} {{IPA|[ajo]}} (garlic; cf. Italian ''aglio'' {{IPA|[aʎo]}}). The Italian novelist [[Luigi Pirandello]] used {{angbr|j}} in vowel groups in his works written in Italian; he also wrote in his native [[Sicilian language]], which still uses the letter {{angbr|j}} to represent {{IPAslink|j}} (and sometimes also [dʒ] or [gj], depending on its environment).<ref>{{cite book |last=Cipolla |first=Gaetano |title=The Sounds of Sicilian: A Pronunciation Guide |year=2007 |publisher=Legas |location=Mineola, NY |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZy-gVVN64kC&pg=PA11 |pages=11–12 |isbn=9781881901518 |author-link=Gaetano Cipolla |access-date=2013-03-31}}</ref>

==== Other European Languages ====

The [[Maltese language]] is a Semitic language, not a Romance language; but has been deeply influenced by them (especially Sicilian) and it uses {{angbr|j}} for the sound /j/ (cognate of the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] ''yod'').

==== Non-European languages ====

Among non-European languages that have adopted the [[Latin script]], {{angbr|j}} stands for {{IPAslink|ʒ}} in [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], for {{IPAslink|ʐ}} in [[Tatar language|Tatar]]. {{angbr|j}} stands for {{IPAslink|dʒ}} in [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], [[Somali language|Somali]], [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Igbo language|Igbo]], [[Shona language|Shona]], [[Oromo language|Oromo]], [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]], and [[Zulu language|Zulu]]. It represents a [[voiced palatal plosive]] {{IPAslink|ɟ}} in [[Konkani language|Konkani]], [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], and [[Swahili language|Swahili]]. In [[Kiowa language|Kiowa]], {{angbr|j}} stands for a voiceless alveolar plosive, {{IPAslink|t}}.

For [[Chinese language]]s, {{angbr|j}} stands for {{IPAslink|t͡ɕ}} in [[Mandarin Chinese]] [[Pinyin]] system, the unaspirated equivalent of {{angbr|q}} ({{IPAslink|t͡ɕʰ}}). In [[Wade–Giles]], {{angbr|j}} stands for Mandarin Chinese {{IPAslink|ʐ}}. [[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]] of [[Hokkien]] and [[Official romanisation scheme for Taiwanese Hokkien|Tâi-lô]] for [[Taiwanese Hokkien]], {{angbr|j}} stands for {{IPAslink|z}} and {{IPAslink|ʑ}}, or {{IPAslink|d͡z}} and {{IPAslink|d͡ʑ}}, depending on accents. In [[Jyutping]] for [[Cantonese]], {{angbr|j}} stands for {{IPAslink|j}}.

* J with [[diacritic]]s: [[Ĵ|Ĵ ĵ]] [[J̌|J̌ ǰ]] [[J with stroke|Ɉ ɉ]] [[J̃|J̃ j̇̃]]

== Computing codes ==

| 004a | 006a | 0237 | name1 = Latin Capital Letter J | name2 = Latin Small Letter J | name3 = Latin Small Letter dotless J

{{anchor|Greek letter Yot}}In Unicode, a duplicate of 'J' for use as a special phonetic character in historical [[Greek language|Greek]] linguistics is encoded in the Greek script block as ϳ (Unicode U+03F3). It is used to denote the [[palatal glide]] {{IPA|/j/}} in the context of Greek script. It is called "Yot" in the Unicode standard, after the German name of the letter J.<ref>Nick Nicholas, [http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/yot.html "Yot"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20120805184433/http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/yot.html |date=2012-08-05 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/03f3/index.htm|title=Unicode Character 'GREEK LETTER YOT' (U+03F3)|access-date=22 December 2016}}</ref> An uppercase version of this letter was added to the Unicode Standard at U+037F with the release of version 7.0 in June 2014.<ref>{{cite web|title=Unicode: Greek and Coptic|url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-7.0/U70-0370.pdf|access-date=2014-06-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title=Unicode 7.0.0 | url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode7.0.0/ | publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] | access-date=2014-06-26 }}</ref>

=== Wingdings smiley issue ===

==Other uses==

* In [[List of international license plate codes|international licence plate codes]], J stands for [[Japan]].

* In [[mathematics]], ''j'' is one of the three imaginary units of [[quaternion]]s.

* Also in [[mathematics]], ''j'' is one of the three unit vectors.

* In the [[Metric system]], J is the symbol for the [[joule]], the [[SI derived unit]] for [[energy]].

* In some areas of [[physics]], [[electrical engineering]] and related fields, ''j'' is the symbol for the [[imaginary unit]] (the square root of −1) (in other fields the letter [[i]] is used, but this would be ambiguous as it is also the symbol for [[electrical current|current]]).

* A '''J''' can be a [[slang]] term for a [[Joint (cannabis)|joint]] ([[marijuana]] cigarette)

== Other representations ==