REGARDING correspondents' discussion of why Germany is not spelled with a J, like Jerusalem: Germany (Germania) was originally pronounced with a hard G, like Ghana - since this was the only way to pronounce it.
Its pronunciation eventually changed when placed before front vowels ("E" or "I") in the Romance languages, and in English due to the influence of French.
"J" was originally an alternative version of "I" (Jerusalem is correctly pronounced "Yerushalem") and the letter keeps this pronunciation in most Germanic and Slavic languages while it again changed in those derived from Latin and in English.
Chris White, Spennymoor, Co Durham.
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