The sound ʤ seems to occur in most Slavic languages [1], I guess the primary reason why "Java" is read as "Yava" is because people tend to apply local pronuncia

The sound ʤ seems to occur in most Slavic languages [1], I guess the primary reason why "Java" is read as "Yava" is because people tend to apply local pronunciation rules to commonly used foreign words, either because of lack of knowledge of native pronunciation or because native pronunciation sounds just silly. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palato-alveolar_affricate#Occurrence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palato-alveolar_affricat...