Gaj's Latin Alphabet - Digraphs

Digraphs

Note that the digraphs ⟨dž⟩, ⟨lj⟩, and ⟨nj⟩ are considered to be single letters. This means that:

• In dictionaries, njegov comes after novine, in a separate ⟨nj⟩ section after the end of the ⟨n⟩ section, and bolje comes after bolnica, and so forth.

• In vertical writing (such as on signs), ⟨dž⟩, ⟨lj⟩, ⟨nj⟩ are nevertheless written horizontally, as a unit. For instance, if mjenjačnica ('Bureau de Change') is written vertically, ⟨nj⟩ appears on the fourth line (but note ⟨m⟩ and ⟨j⟩ appear separately on the first and second lines, respectively, because ⟨mj⟩ contains two letters, not one). In crossword puzzles, ⟨dž⟩, ⟨lj⟩, ⟨nj⟩ each occupy a single square.
• In cases where words are written with a space between each letter (such as on signs), each of these letters is written together. For instance: M J E NJ A Č N I C A.

• In cases where only the initial letter of a word is capitalized, only the first of the two component letters is capitalized: Njemačka and not NJemačka. In Unicode, the form ⟨Nj⟩ is referred to as titlecase, as opposed to the uppercase form ⟨NJ⟩, representing one of the few cases where titlecase and uppercase differ. Uppercase would be used if the entire word was capitalized: NJEMAČKA.