Why so much variation in the letter "j"? (Philological Room) Language Learning Forum

Why so much variation in the letter "j"?
Tags: Alphabets \| Pronunciation
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20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

xander.XVII
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Message 17 of 20

17 April 2013 at 11:09pm | IP Logged

onurdolar wrote:

In Turkish J is somewhere between french J and English G ( as in
gender ). I find it interesting Italians call it "i lunga" but the sound has nothing to
do with i, or does it? I am not sure.

J is a strange case: it doesn't belong to the proper Italian alphabet since it is part of
the "5 lettere straniere" i.e. X,Y,W,K and J.
Notwithstanding, J has two values:
As "gi" like in French or English (for example like Jackson's pronounce)
As semi-consonantic "i" such as in words like "ieri","iato","Iacopo".
In fact, the latter is an old-fashioned use (Pirandello wrote "ieri" as "jeri") but that
pronounce survives in some places' names like Jesolo for example.
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Carlucio
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Message 18 of 20

21 April 2013 at 12:04am | IP Logged

The name latin Joannes has so many variations that many people doesn't know that João, John, Juan, Sean??, Jean,Joan, Jan,Janos,Jonas,Giovanni?? have the same origin.
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Raincrowlee
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Message 19 of 20

21 April 2013 at 3:34am | IP Logged

Carlucio wrote:

The name latin Joannes has so many variations that many people doesn't know that João, John, Juan, Sean??, Jean,Joan, Jan,Janos,Jonas,Giovanni?? have the same origin.

Not to mention Ian, Evan and Ivan.
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vonPeterhof
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Message 20 of 20

21 April 2013 at 8:45am | IP Logged

Raincrowlee wrote:

Carlucio wrote:

The name latin Joannes has so many variations that many people doesn't know that João, John, Juan, Sean??, Jean,Joan, Jan,Janos,Jonas,Giovanni?? have the same origin.

Not to mention Ian, Evan and Ivan.

I believe "Ivan" was derived directly from the Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs) rather than the latter's Latin derivation "Joannes". Granted, the Latin and the Greek variant were originally pronounced almost identically, but still the Russian variant went from Ἰωάννης to Іоаннъ ("Ioann"; the name is still pronounced and spelled as "Иоанн" in religious and certain historical contexts) and eventually to Иван without ever being spelled with a Latin J, so the historical changes in said letter's pronunciation have nothing to do with it.

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