Editing IJ (digraph) (section)

==History==
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2012}}
''IJ'' probably developed out of ''ii'', representing a long {{IPA|[iː]}} sound (which it still does in some cases, such as in the word ''{{Lang|nl|bijzonder}}'' and in several Dutch dialects).<ref name="IJ origins"/> In the [[Middle Ages]], the ''i'' was written without a [[tittle|dot]] in handwriting, and the combination ''ıı'' was often confused with ''u''. Therefore, the second ''i'' was elongated: ''ıȷ''. Later, the dots were added, albeit not in [[Afrikaans]], a language that has its roots in Dutch. In this language ''y'' is used instead.

Alternatively, the letter [[J]] may have developed as a [[swash (typography)|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", to prevent the fraudulent addition of an extra ''i'' to change the number. 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''. An argument against this theory is that even in handwriting which does not join letters, ''ij'' is often written as a single sign.

Some time after the birth of this 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]] {{IPA|[ɛi]}}, except in the suffix ''-lijk'', where it is usually pronounced as a [[schwa]]. In one special case, the Dutch word ''bijzonder'', the (old) sound {{IPA|[iː]}} is correct standard pronunciation, although {{IPA|[i]}} is more common and {{IPA|[ɛi]}} is also allowed.

In [[proper noun|proper names]], ''ij'' often appears instead of ''i'' at the end of other [[diphthong]]s, where it does not affect the pronunciation: ''aaij'', ''eij'', ''oeij'', ''ooij'' and ''uij'' are pronounced identically to ''aai'' {{IPA|[aːi]}}, ''ei'' {{IPA|[ɛi]}}, ''oei'' {{IPA|[ui]}}, ''ooi'' {{IPA|[oːi]}} and ''ui'' {{IPA|[œy]}}. This derives from an old orthographic practice (also seen in older French and German) of writing ''y'' instead of ''i'' after another vowel; later, when ''y'' and ''ij'' came to be seen as interchangeable, the spellings with ''ij'' came to be used. [[History of Dutch orthography|Spelling reforms and standardization]] have removed the redundant ''j''s in common words, but proper names continue to use these archaic spellings.