IJ (letter)
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- This article is about the ligature. For the bay near Amsterdam, see IJ (bay).
IJ is a ligature in Dutch that is not part of the alphabet (see below) used to represent the diphthong Template:IPA or Template:IPA. In the combinations -lijk and -lijke and derivations thereof, ij is pronounced as a schwa.
To distinguish between the ij and the ei, a diphthong which in most dialects is pronounced identically, the ij is referred to as the 'long IJ' (lange ij) in the Dutch language, the ei as 'short IJ' (korte ei) or simply ei. The long name is because of the form of the letter, not because of its sound.
It is different from the letter "Y", but it sometimes replaces it in the Dutch alphabet. In Dutch Y only occurs in loanwords or in (variantly spelled) old Dutch, and is often called 'Griekse IJ' ('Greek Y') or 'I-grec' (the latter from French, but with the stress on grec). However, in Afrikaans, a South African language derived from Dutch, IJ has been replaced by Y.
In standard Dutch usage:
- If a word which starts with ij and its first letter must be capitalized, the i and the j are both capitalized: e.g. IJmuiden, not Ijmuiden.
- If a word which contains ij is letter-spaced, the ij stays together, e.g. B e ij e r l a n d. On word processors, the ij is usually typed by an i followed by a j. In this case, the i and j might get separated.
Some Dutch typewriters have a separate key for lowercase ij, but this is unusual.
History and pronunciation
IJ probably developed out of II representing a long I sound, which it still represents in one special case, namely bijzonder [special], and in several Dutch dialects. At that time, the ‘i’ was written without a dot in handwriting, and so the combination ‘ıı’ was often confused with the ‘u’, and therefore the second ‘i’ was elongated. Another theory is that it may have arisen from lowercase 'y' being split into its two strokes in handwriting. At some time in the 15th or 16th century, this began to be spelt as a ligature ij. The sound was variably also spelt y, and still is in the Afrikaans language, which split from 16th century Dutch, and in many Alemannic dialects where it stands for Template:IPA. Some time after that the sound which was now represented by ij in most cases began to be pronounced much like ei instead, but words containing it were still spelt the same. Today ij in most cases represents the ei-like sound, except in the suffix -lijk, where it is pronounced as a schwa.
Sorting
Although dictionaries since 1850 have invariably been sorting ij between ih and ik, most encyclopaedias and all telephone directories in the Netherlands (but not those in Belgium) sort ij and y together, as if they are the same. This is because many surnames have nonstandard spellings: Bruijn may also be spelled Bruyn, and thanks to this sorting they can be found next to each other. This also helps with Frisian names (such as 'Fryslân') which contain a y but are often spelled with an ij and pronounced as 'ie'. Of course this sorting is not perfect, as the name Bruin would still not be sorted along with the other variants. But of course in dictionary order Bruyn would be orphaned instead.
No matter how it is sorted, or if the ligature or i+j is used, in Dutch it remains one letter, and therefore should be capitalized as a whole: ijsvrij (ice-free: a day off school sometimes, very rarely though, given in deep winter) should be capitalized as IJsvrij, and also spelled IJ S V R IJ in widespaced all-caps, and not I J S V R I J. In Dutch crosswords IJ fills only one square. Also, if the ligature appears at the beginning of a proper name the ij is capitalized as a whole, e.g. in IJssel and IJmuiden.
This rule is however not always followed: some Flemings do not consider IJ to be a letter, and consequently IJ is not consistently capitalized, resulting in spellings like Ijsvrij. This is however not standard usage, and seen as highly incorrect in standard Dutch. The form Ij is considered very ugly spelling by most Dutch language users.
Nevertheless, the dictionary Van Dale Groot Woordenboek (the authoritative Dutch dictionary) states that it is a misunderstanding to put the 'y' on par with 'ij', as which happens a lot in alphabetical orderings (and in alphabetical name lists this may be justifiable on practical grounds): the 'ij' should be considered 'i' + 'j'.
Technical details
The Dutch ij is usually represented as a ligature of I and J. The ligature is not in ASCII or in any of the ISO 8859 character encodings, and therefore the letter is most often written as two separate letters. The ligature does exist in Unicode in the Latin Extended-A range as the character IJ (U+0132) (and its lowercase form ij (U+0133)). These code points are provided for compatibility with legacy systems and their use is discouraged. Using two separate letters is recommended by the European rules for the use of the IJ in public records. Sometimes the double capital causes problems with automatic spelling checkers.
In print ÿ (lowercase y with diaeresis) and ij look very different, but in the handwriting of most Dutch speakers ÿ and ij are identical.
The long ij extends below the baseline and is therefore written with a long stroke; even in some handwritings which do not join letters, it is written as a single sign.
| Latin alphabet | Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Qq | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz |
|---|---|
| Modified characters | Àà | Áá | Ââ | Ää | Ãã | Āā | Ąą | Ăă | Ǎǎ | Çç | Ĉĉ | Čč | Ćć | Đđ | Ďď | Èè | Éé | Êê | Ëë | Ęę | Ēē | Ĕĕ | Ėė | Ěě | Ĝĝ | Ğğ | Ġġ | Ģģ | Ǧǧ | Ĥĥ | Ħħ | Ìì | Íí | Îî | Ïï | Įį | İı | Ĩĩ | Īī | Ĭĭ | Ĵĵ | Ķķ | Ǩǩ | Ĺĺ | Ļļ | Ľľ | Ŀŀ | Łł | Ńń | Ņņ | Ňň | Òò | Óó | Ôô | Öö | Õõ | Őő | Ǫǫ | Ōō | Ŏŏ | Ơơ | Ŕŕ | Ŗŗ | Řř | Śś | Ŝŝ | Şş | Șș | Šš | Ťť | Ŧŧ | Ţţ | Țț | Ùù | Úú | Ûû | Üü | Ũũ | Ūū | Ŭŭ | Ųų | Ůů | Űű | Ưư | Ŵŵ | Ýý | Ŷŷ | Ÿÿ | Źź | Žž | Żż |
| Alphabet extensions | Ȁȁ | Ȃȃ | Ææ | Ǽǽ | Ǣǣ | Åå | Ċċ | Ðð | DZdz | Dždž | Ɛɛ | Ȅȅ | Ȇȇ | Əə | Ƒƒ | Ǥǥ | Ǧǧ | Ƣƣ | Ƕƕ | IJij | Ǐǐ | Ȉȉ | Ȋȋ | Ǩǩ | ĸ | Ljlj | LLll | ĿLŀl | Ññ | Njnj | Ŋŋ | Œœ | Øø | Ǿǿ | Ǒǒ | Ȍȍ | Ȏȏ | Ɔɔ | Ȣȣ | [[R rotunda|Template:Mufi]] | Ȑȑ | Ȓȓ | ſ | ß | Ʃʃ | Ǔǔ | Ȕȕ | Ȗȗ | Ƿƿ | Ȝȝ | Ȥȥ | Ƶƶ | Ʒʒ | Ǯǯ | Þþ |
| Stylistic variants | Carolingian g | Insular g |
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