The Y Sound, Y in Old English

The Germanic word garden from the Franks became yard in Old English. But it didn't just shift to one particular new sound. It actually tended to shift to a variety of new sounds. One of the new sounds was the Y sound, Y. Now the Y sound is a sound in the back of the mouth. Another new sound was developing from that hard G sound. And this other sound was also a sibling like sch and ch. The same change was happening in Latin as well. That's how we got from germania with a hard G to germany with a soft G.