The Avatars of Jeem

The Arabic letter jeem (ج) also has a number of pronunciations:

1. The Qur'anic jeem is very similar to the English j. It is used by the native Jordanian dialects and also by urban Jordanian men who consider the following pronunciation too feminine.
2. The zheem of the Northern Levant (Syria, Lebanon, and some areas of Palestine) is identical to the French j and is used by urban city women in Jordan. It is also common among some Saudis.
   
3. The geem is most commonly associated with the Urban Egyptian dialect, where it sounds almost identical to the hard English g. However, it is also used quite a bit in the dialects of Yemen, though its pronunciation is not quite as close to the hard English g as in the Egyptian dialect. Once when Habib Salim was visiting Amman from Hadramaut, he referred to a gabeera (cast). One of the locals thought he was saying kabeera (big).
4. The yeem is common in Gulf countries.
5. The deem is not very common but is occasionally used by some of the Upper (i.e. Southern) Egyptians and Nubians. Instead of Jamal, they will say Damal.

Although the Egyptians pronounce jeem as geem, when they speak English, they pronounce the soft g and j like the French j. As for Jordanian men, they find this pronunciation too feminine and thus pronounce all words with this sound with an English j sound. So, instead of saying, "I have the latest version", they'll say, "I have the latest virgin."