IJ (digraph) - History

History

IJ probably developed out of ii, representing a long sound (which it still does in some occasions, such as in the word bijzonder and in several Dutch dialects). In the Middle Ages, the i was written without a dot in handwriting, and the combination ıı was often confused with u. Therefore, the second i was elongated. Later, the dots were added, albeit not in Afrikaans, a language that has its roots in Dutch. In this language the y is used instead.

Alternatively, the letter J developed as a swash form of i. In other European languages it was first used for the final i in Roman numerals when there was more than one i in a row, such as iij for "three". In Dutch, which had a native ii, the "final i in a row elongated" rule was applied as well, leading to ij.

Another theory is that IJ might have arisen from the lowercase y being split into two strokes in handwriting. At some time in the 15th or 16th century, this combination began to be spelled as a ligature ij. Contradicting this theory is the fact that even in handwritings which do not join letters, ij is often written as a single sign.

Some time after the birth of the new letter, 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 spelled the same. Nowadays, ij in most cases represents the diphthong, except in the suffix -lijk, where it is usually pronounced as a schwa. In one special case, the Dutch word bijzonder, the (old) sound is correct standard pronunciation, although is more common and is also allowed. Interestingly, the Yiddish counterpart of ij is יי, two yods (I and J are both Latin equivalents of yod), which is also pronounced and typically transcribed ey. Yiddish also parallels Dutch ui in a similar fashion with וי, oy.