why would J show up in the name of a town?

[sceaminmonkey]

so I am taking italian and am told there is no J in the alphabet. However I see that the name of the comune di Lajatico does have a J. I remember hearing somethign about how dialects can use different writing systems etc but I want to be more clear on it and I am super curious. I know it is also accepted for foreign words but this place is in italy!! actually andrea bocelli so whats up with the J? whats the deal with a standard italian alphabet?

[Italysearcher]

I believe it is called an elongated i. It is also seen in surnames.

[Tessa78]

Further information on the letter "j" and "i"

From this site - page 5
http://familyhistory.byu.edu/Downloads/ ... tion_A.pdf

The letters J, K, W, X, and Y appear in the Italian alphabet, but are used mainly in
foreign words adopted into the Italian vocabulary. Examples: jazz, kilogramme, waterpolo,
xilofono, yacht. The letter j, as used in older texts, had an "i" sound and was
often used in place of a double i.

T.

[JohnArmellino]

While the modern Italian alphabet has no letter j as used in native terms [the letter j does appear in dictionaries for archaic spellings and foreign and international terms officially adopted in Italian], years ago the letter long i was used in triphthongs or when the letter i was combined with other vowels to form one sound, e.g., proietto/projetto or gioiello/giojello or Boiano/Bojano. This sound is similar to the y in yellow or lawyer. The long i was sometimes used to denote this sound.