The Dutch alphabet, like the English, consists of 26 letters, but one could argue there’s actually 27. This ghost letter is the ij, and it’s a bit of a special one. Why does it exist, how does it work, how is it pronounced, and what should you do with it? Let’s find out!
i + j = ij
The reason we don’t see the ij as a brandnew letter, is because it’s made up of an i and a j. That’s how we type it when we use a keyboard, too – don’t expect a single button for it, although those have existed in typewriters in the past. However, putting the i and j together in this way does create something that acts like a 27th letter.
How is ij pronounced?
This is where the fun actually starts. The ij can be pronounced in three different ways. The basic pronunciation, that works most of the time, is similar to the English y (as a vowel) in by – it’s not exactly the same, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume it is. (I’ll call this #1).
The second option is to pronounce it like the y in the English -ly suffix (again, as a vowel), like the e in become. (This will be referred to as #2).
The third pronunciation is a bit of a lazy one. I’ll explain that one later on, as it doesn’t really exist in any official way.
Figuring out when to use which is, as per usual in Dutch, a bit annoying. As stated, it’s usually #1, but there are some often-used exceptions. Take these two similar-looking words, for example:
bijvoorbeeld (Eng: for example)
bijzonder (Eng: special)
Most Dutch people will pronounce bijvoorbeeld using #1, but bijzonder using #2, although using #1 is also accepted in this case.
Origin of ij
IJ came into the Dutch language as a double i, or ii. Because the i wasn’t usually dotted back then, this ii could easily be confused with the letter u, which proved a bit annoying. That’s why we made the second i a bit longer, thus ending up with ij. We literally call it lange ij (Eng: long ij).
The ij can be seen as our substitute for the letter y (i-grec or ypsilon), when said y is used as a vowel. The y is in our actual alphabet, but is nowadays only used in Dutch in loan words from other languages. That’s why the ij is sometimes combined with the y in our general alphabet.
Capital IJ
As you can see at the start of the previous paragraph, when a sentence begins with a word that starts with ij, we write both the i and j as a capital letter. In fact, Dutch is the only language in the world that has a double-letter capital that’s not actually an official ligature.
This also happens when the word starts with a capital by default, such as names of cities (IJmuiden) or other places (IJsselmeer). There’s even a river that goes straight through Amsterdam that’s literally called the IJ; it simply means water.
(Funnily enough, the busiest part of the IJ, shown in the picture, is shaped like a Y.)
This is quite annoying for Dutch people when they use autocorrect, for the rule isn’t always known by programmers, and the j often ends up being decapitalized. I suppose the world isn’t ready for it yet.
And the Y?
As stated earlier, the y is a perfectly legitimate letter in the Dutch alphabet – well, sorta kinda. While it does take up the same alphabet space of any of the other letters, we have more or less kicked it out. There are currently no native Dutch words that feature the letter y.
Having said that, we do use it quite a lot, and that’s mainly thanks to you English speakers out there. Some words that have made it well into Dutch dictionaries, either a long time ago or much more recently:
- hobby
- baby
- boycot
- privacy
- sexy
- gay
Others have not yet made it into the official dictionaries, but are still used on a daily basis, and most people will understand them perfectly fine:
- cringy
- edgy
- DIY
- story
- energy (drink)
- […]-worthy
There’s also some words we stole from other languages, such as yoghurt (Eng: yogurt) from Turkish and gymnastiek (Eng: gymnastics) from Greek.
Fun fact: I’m currently re-reading some of the books I read for my Dutch classes in high school. One of them, a very famous one called Max Havelaar, is quite old indeed (1859). In it, every single ij has been written as a y. For English speakers, that might actually look more familiar, but for Dutchies, it’s very annoying to read. Here, I took a picture:
What about that third pronunciation?
The third pronunciation is a bit of an odd one, which is why I’m only explaining it now. It appears in the very common -lijk suffix, which is comparable to the English -ly, meaning in the way of, or literally -like. When it’s used like this, it isn’t usually pronounced as either #1 or #2, but simply as a schwa or reduced mid central vowel. It’s basically the u in uhh.
To which degree this happens, depends a lot on dialect and upbringing. In more formal situations, ij may be pronounced resembling #1 a bit more, but it’s really just a matter of how you speak as a person.
Fun facts
- In most dictionaries, words containing ij are sorted after words containing ii and before words containing ik, just like would happen with two separate letters.
- In puzzels and word games, the ij is almost exclusively seen as one letter. In Dutch Scrabble sets, there even used to be two extra tiles containing the ij, but those were dropped in 1998. The Belgian version never had this tile. Dutch people usually use the y for words containing ij, although some just use an i and a j separately.
- In the not even all that distant past, y and ij were seen as entirely interchangeable, and both could be found all around (we didn’t use the y as a consonant yet, back then).
- Dutch also features ei, a combination of e and i, which has the exact same pronunciation as #1, but only as #1. Ei is also the Dutch word for egg.
- Sometimes, an i followed by a j isn’t pronounced as an ij at all, mainly in compound words such as skijas (ski-jas, Eng: ski jacket).
Long storij short
No matter how you look at it, the ij is a bit of an odd one. It holds no official status as a letter, but it is often seen, and used, as one. Its pronunciation not only depends on the type of word it’s in, but also on where you’re from and how you were raised.
Whether you see it as a single letter or simply as a combination of i and j, is pretty much up to you, although the spelling rules are crystal clear on how you should write it down in certain circumstances, such as at the beginning of a sentence. Still, it’s kind of nice to have a letter that’s not really a letter, but also kind of is. With that, I’ll call it a day. Bijebije!
