The New J Sound in Old English

In the seventh century in Old English it became brügg. And today we have it as bridge with that J sound at the end. Notice that it previously ended with a hard G sound, now we're starting to end with a softer J sound. Many of these words came into English from Latin after 1066. But even though this J sound was becoming more common in English, the letter J didn't actually exist yet. In fact the letter J is a very recent addition to the alphabet. As we'll see next time, the early English Saxon scribes had to figure out what to do with this sound.