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The IJ (lowercase ij; ) is the digraph of the letters ''i'' and ''j''. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or even a letter in itself – although in most fonts that have a separate character for ''ij'' the two composing parts are not connected, but are separate glyphs, sometimes slightly kerned. An ''ij'' in written Dutch usually represents the diphthong .〔.〕 In standard Dutch, and most Dutch dialects, there are two possible spellings for the diphthong : ''ij'' and ''ei''. This causes confusion for schoolchildren, who need to learn which words to write with ''ei'' and which with ''ij''. 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), as well as the Dutch Low Saxon dialects of Low German, a difference in the pronunciation of ''ei'' and ''ij'' is maintained. Whether pronounced identically to ''ei'' or not, the pronunciation of ''ij'' is often perceived as being difficult by people who do not have either sound in their native language. The tendency for native English speakers is to pronounce ''ij'' as , (like the English vowel y) which does not normally lead to confusion among native listeners, since in a number of dialects (e.g. in Amsterdam〔(Onderzoek naar de Amsterdamse Volkstaal )〕) the same pronunciation is heard. The ''ij'' originally represented a 'long i'.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=IJ: oorsprong van de lange ij )〕 This can still be seen in the etymology of some words, and in the Dutch form of several foreign placenames: Berlin and Paris are spelled ''Berlijn'' and ''Parijs''. Nowadays, the pronunciation follows the spelling, and they are pronounced with . The ''IJ'' is different from the letter ''Y''. It used to be common, in particular when writing in capitals, to write Y instead of IJ. In fact this was the official spelling in the earlier part of the 19th century. That practice has now long been deprecated, but the standard Dutch pronunciation of the letter Y is ''ij'' when reading the alphabet. Also, in scientific disciplines such as mathematics and physics, the symbol ''y'' is usually pronounced ''ij''. To distinguish the ''Y'' from ''IJ'' in common speech however, ''Y'' is often called ''Griekse IJ'' ("Greek ''Y''"), ''i-grec'' (the latter from French, with the stress on ''grec'': (:iˈgʁɛk)), or ''Ypsilon''. In Dutch, the letter ''Y'' today only occurs in loanwords, proper names, or in (variantly spelled) old Dutch. However, in the related language Afrikaans, the ''Y'' has replaced the ''IJ''. Furthermore, the names of Dutch immigrants to the United States, Canada and Australia often were Anglicised, so that the ''IJ'' became a ''Y''; for example, the surname ''Spijker'' often became ''Spyker''. ==History== ''IJ'' probably developed out of ''ii'', representing a long sound (which it still does in some cases, 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: ''ıȷ''. 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 may have 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''. 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 , 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''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「IJ (digraph)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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