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J (letter)
From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
J is the tenth letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced like that of the bird jay.
Use in English
j combines the two sounds d (as in dóg) and zh (as in Brézhnev or like z in ázure or s in pléasure). Many languages, including French, German, Portuguese and Arabic, do not have this sound. (Russian and Spanish have the unvoiced version of it, t + sh, which is spelt ch in both English and Spanish, whence mácho.)
j likes to occur initially (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes): jét, jázz, jíg, jést, jêep, jólly, jàr, jám, Jásper, Jóhn, Jêsus, Jeŵish, Jím, Jâmes, Jíll, Jáckson, Jéffrey (= Géoffrey) and after a prefix: disjŏinted, disjúnctive, injúnction, unjúst, injústice, outjúmp. Foreign learners, for example francophones, often mispronounce j as zh: its normal sound is dzh.
j is rarely found alone, between two vowels, inside a word: cajôle, ajàr, rejéct. The normal spelling for the j sound here is g or dg: pígeon, dúdgeon. So júdge is pronounced *júj. j renders the d in ad- redundant: adjûdicate, ádjunct, ádjective, adjöurn, adjúst. It is only used finally in words from Hindi: Ràj, Ámritràj. The normal spelling for the j sound finally is (d)ge: bádge, grúdge, plédge, dódge, gâuge, câge, pâge, wâge, sìêge, wâge, sâge, gàrbage, lúggage.
And g is more usual than j before front vowels: Géoffrey, Gíllian (cf. Jíll) gîant, gigántic, Gërmany, géneral, George, géntle, and is much more common inside words: âgent, págeant, pígeon, rêgion.
j does not begin consonant clusters, and the only jj is in hàjj.
