IJ (digraph)

IJ (minuscule: ij; Dutch pronunciation: [ɛi] ), also encountered as Unicode compatibility characters IJ and ij, is a digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or a letter in itself. In most fonts that have a separate character for ij, the two composing parts are not connected but are separate glyphs, which are sometimes slightly kerned. An ij in written Dutch usually represents the diphthong [ɛi], similar to the pronunciation of ⟨ay⟩ in "pay", and is preserved in such Dutch spellings as the place-name IJsselmeer. In standard Dutch and most Dutch dialects, there are two possible spellings for the diphthong [ɛi]: ij and ei, with no clear usage rules. To distinguish between the two, the ij is referred to as the lange ij ("long ij"), the ei as korte ei ("short ei") or simply E – I. In certain Dutch dialects (notably West Flemish and Zeelandic) and the Dutch Low Saxon dialects of Low German, a difference in the pronunciation of ei and ij is maintained. Whether it is pronounced identically to ei or not, the pronunciation of ij is often perceived as difficult by people who do not have either sound in their native language. The ij originally represented a 'long i'. It used to be written as ii, as it is in Finnish, Estonian, and notably in West Frisian (where cognates like iis/ijs "ice" can often be found). For orthographic purposes, the second i was eventually elongated to j (considered a stylistic variant of i rather than a distinct letter at the time), which is a reason why it is called lange ij. This can still be seen in the pronunciation of some words like bijzonder /bi.zɔn.dər/, and the etymology of some words in the Dutch form...