Did you know that Latin had no J sound? (1 Viewer)

Ahsoka · 16 March 2025

Which can help explain why so many languages start the name “Julius” with a I or Y type sound. His name in Latin would have been written as Iulius in lowercase, and IVLIVS for uppercase. The change from U to V is because V originally had either a U sound or a W sound depending on the word, but in uppercase, U was always replaced with V. As for the J at the start, that can be blamed on the French. Prior to the Norman invasion, Julius Caesar was actually pronounced more like the Latin version. But the Norman conquest brought the usage of the J sound, as French had already added the J sound Julius, and in other words as well. Old English had the J sound, but in very very limited capacity.

Additionally, C in Latin made a K sound only. So while English speakers pronounce Caesar with a S sound, like Sea-ser (kinda), it would have been a bit more like Kay-ser. This may make it clearer how the word Kaiser descends from Caesar, if you pronounce the C with a K sound.

So in other words, Julius Caesar sounds a lot different than it used to.

You can partly blame the French. They led us astray

Bonus fun fact: J is actually a very uncommon letter in english, in large part because the sound was basically nonexistent prior to the Norman invasion of 1066. Most words with that sound are borrowed from Old French, with a smaller amount from languages like Spanish. J is disproportionately common in proper nouns because French names were commonly used, due to the fact that it was the language of nobles in England for a long time. Additionally, many Greek, Biblical, and Latin words and names starting with the I or Y letters (sometimes written with a J, but not because it made a J sound) were changed to J during the renaissance, to feel more “classical” (despite those sounds not being present in Latin) in order to standardize spelling. Weird.