IPA phoneme \j\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/j/** corresponds to the semivowel sound in words like "you", "yellow" and "yes". This sound is called *yod* /jɒd/.

## Common words

**IPA consonants**

The sequence /juː/ is very common in English and it has special spellings: "u", "ue", "eu" and "ew". Before other vowels /j/ is normally spelled "y".

* /j/ as "y"

Kenya, yard, year, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, York, you, young, your, youth
beyond /bɪˈjɒnd,  biˈɒnd/
* Before /uː/. Main article: IPA phonetic sequence \juː\

"u" as /juː/: acc**u**mulate, Cuba, cute, distribute, stimulate
"ue" as /juː/: argue, continue, hue, value
"ew" as /juː/: few, Matthew, nephew
"iew" as /juː/: interview, review, view
* Before /ʊə/

"ur" as /jʊə/: cure, curious, pure, security
* Before /ə/

"u" as /jə/: accum**u**late, failure, formula, popular
Other cases

"ia" as /jə/: California, Spaniard
"ie" as /jə/: Daniel
"io" as /jə/: behavior,*AmE* behaviour,*BrE* million, onion, opinion
## Uncommon words

* canyon /ˈkænjən/
* cognac: /ˈkɒnjæk,*BrE* ˈkəʊnjæk*AmE*/
* emu /ˈiːmjuː/
* fjord /ˈfjɔːrd/
* hallelujah /ˌhælɪˈluːjə/
* lasagna,*AmE* lasagne,*BrE* /ləˈzænjə/
* pinata, piñata /pɪnˈjɑːtə/
* savior,*AmE* saviour*BrE* /ˈseɪvjər/
* yacht /jɒt/

## No /j/

Many words that have "y" in their spelling don't have a /j/ phoneme in their pronunciation. This in practice means there might be subtle differences in syllabification or a difference in vowel quality. For example "kayak" is /ˈkaɪ.æk/ and not /kɑː.jæk/. In some cases there are alternate pronunciations, as in "lawyer". Note, however, that the realization of some of these vowels may contain a [j] sound, as in *royal* pronounced [ˈrɔjəl]. See IPA phonetic symbol [j]. The pronunciation shown by *Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary* is shown in square brackets.

kayak: /ˈkaɪ.æk/ [ˈkaɪˌæk]
 /eɪ/
layer: /ˈleɪ.ər/ [ˈlejɚ], /leər/*BrE*
mayor: /meər/,*BrE* /meɪ.ər/*AmE* [ˈmejɚ]*AmE*
royal: /ˈrɔɪ.əl/ [ˈrojəl].

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

While **/j/** is very similar to the "i" in the Spanish diphthongs "ia", "ie", "io" and "iu", most Spanish speakers pronounce the initial /j/ in words like "yes", "young" and "university" like **/dʒ/**, i.e. they do not distinguish between "yet" and "jet" or "use" and "juice". This problem can be solved by making them notice that several Spanish words have initial /j/, such as *hiato* or *ion*, which are different from *"yato"* or *"yon"*.

Conversely, Spanish speakers tend to use /j/ before a vowel where English uses /iː/ (or /ɪ/ in some accents). For example vegetarian might be pronounced /ˌve.dʒəˈteər.jən/ instead of /ˌve.dʒəˈteər.iː.ən/, blending the last two syllables into one.

## References

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries, yod.
2. ↑ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, beyond.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dictionary.com. Random House, Inc. beyond.
4. ↑ Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary, royal

## See also

* Decoding the letter Y
* Decoding the letter U
* Decoding exercises: "eu"
* Decoding exercises: "ew"
* Decoding exercises: "ue"
* IPA phonetic sequence /juː/
* Pronunciation exercises: /dʒ/ vs /j/
* Pronunciation exercises: /j/ vs /ɪ/ or /iː/

## External links

* British Library, Received Pronunciation consonant sounds