J | History, Etymology, & Pronunciation - Britannica

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j The English letter j did not come into existence until the end of the Middle Ages, when scribes began to use a tailed form of i, with or without the dot, next to the short form of i (1). When printing was invented, the tailed form of i (2) was often used for an initial i, which is usually consonantal. Not until the 17th century, however, was the distinction between J or j as a consonant and I or i as a vowel fully established. (more)
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j, tenth letter of the alphabet. It was not differentiated from the letter i until comparatively modern times.

It was the custom in medieval manuscripts to lengthen the letter I when it was in a prominent position, notably when it was initial. As initial I usually had consonantal force, the lengthened form came definitely to be regarded as representing the consonant and the short form the vowel in whatever position they occurred. The process of differentiation began about the 14th century but was not complete until the 17th century. For certain purposes—an alphabetical series, for example—the letters I and J are not always regarded as distinct, the enumeration passing occasionally from I to K.

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The original consonantal sound represented by the letter was the semivowel or spirant i (the sound of y in the word yacht). This passed into dy and later into the sound dž that the letter represents today. This sound was already established in the language in words of Romance origin in which it was represented by g (e.g., in words such as gesture or ginger), and these words retain their spelling. In English the letter J represents the same sound (dž) in all positions, and deviations from it are extremely rare even in words of foreign origin. In the bird name jaeger, however, the sound dž and the sound y are both admitted, and in certain personal and local names of Spanish origin (e.g., Javier, La Jolla), the sound of h is current in English usage. The minuscule form j is the lengthened form, retaining the dot, of minuscule i.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.

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