IJ (letter)
Categories: Uncommon Latin letters
IJ is a letter from the Dutch alphabet used to represent the diphthong [eɪ] or [ɛɪ]. When unstressed, IJ is pronounced as a schwa.
To distinguish between the ij and the ei, a diphtong 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", and 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 However, in Afrikaans, a South African language derived from Dutch, IJ has been replaced by Y.
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; or 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. 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 southern (Belgian) variants of Dutch 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 incorrect in other variants of Dutch.
Technical details
The Dutch Y can be 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 seperate letters. The ligature does exists 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.
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 lange ij ij extends below the baseline and is therefore written with a long stroke; even in 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 | Çç | Ĉĉ | Čč | Ćć | Ðđ | Ďď | Èè | Éé | Êê | Ëë | Ęę | Ēē | Ĕĕ | Ėė | Ěě | Ƒƒ | Ĝĝ | Ğğ | Ġġ | Ģģ | Ǧǧ | Ĥĥ | Ħħ | Ìì | Íí | Îî | Ïï | Įį | İı | Ĩĩ | Īī | Ĭĭ | Ĵĵ | Ķķ | Ǩǩ | Ĺĺ | Ļļ | Ľľ | Ŀŀ | Łł | Ññ | 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 | Ǎǎ | Ȁȁ | Ȃȃ | Ææ | Ǽǽ | Ǣǣ | Åå | Ċċ | Ðð | DZdz | DŽdž | Ɛɛ | Ʒʒ | Ǯǯ | Ȅȅ | Ȇȇ | Əə | Ȝȝ | Ǥǥ | Ǧǧ | Ƣƣ | Ƕƕ | IJij | Ǐǐ | Ȉȉ | Ȋȋ | Ǩǩ | ĸ | LJlj | LLll | ĿLŀl | NJnj | Ŋŋ | Œœ | Øø | Ǿǿ | Ǒǒ | Ȍȍ | Ȏȏ | Ɔɔ | Ȣȣ | | Ȑȑ | Ȓȓ | ſ | ß | Ʃʃ | Þþ | Ǔǔ | Ȕȕ | Ȗȗ | Ƿƿ | Ƶƶ |
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