Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!mti!adrian
From: adrian@mti.mti.com (Adrian McCarthy)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: National alphabets
Message-ID: <918@mti.mti.com>
Date: 23 Feb 90 18:14:55 GMT
References: <1261@shelby.Stanford.EDU> <1064@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl> <4527@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Reply-To: adrian@mti.UUCP (Adrian McCarthy)
Followup-To: comp.text.tex
Organization: Micro Technology, Anaheim, CA
Lines: 20

In article <1064@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl> scribitur:

>In Dutch the 'ij' is really a ligature: the lip of the 'j'
>should reach under the 'i'. Very close kerning! Let's consider
>this a national character.

Hold the phone!  My mother, who grew up in the Netherlands, told me that
people often mistake a "y" with two dots over it with "ij".  The mistake
is easy to understand in cursive handwriting.  To prove her point, my
mom showed me several Dutch books and hand-written letters which had the
same word.  In type, it was indeed the "y" with dots, and in writing it
resembled "ij".

Is this "ij" ligature a big mix-up?  Is this discussion really about a
"y" with dots?  Have typography styles in the Netherlands changed over
the past 35 years, superceding the "y" with a ligature?

Aid.

P.S.  Followups to comp.text.tex.