Italian, meanwhile, rejected J after early experimentation and instead denoted the sound “j” with a soft G—either G in front of the old I when followed by A or U, or G instead of I before other vowels. Today, among Italian words starting with the sound “j,” Jesus is Gésu, justice is giustizia, and Julius is Giulio (from which the surname Giuliani derives). Italian uses letter J only for foreign words already in print, like “jazz.”