Re: OT: NB as Xy

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"
 on Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:09:48 -0400


>> The English
>> letter "y" derives from the Dutch "ij" (both vowels.
pronounced
>> ee-ye). Note that y-diaeresis *looks like* cursive "ij" -- no
>> accident.

> Now that I had never heard before. But wasn't modern y also used
> at certain periods to represent the Old and Middle English (and
> Scots) letter yogh? E.g. in the name of the poet Layamon?

Well, yogh was a chameleon, sometimes voiced, sometimes not. As
a vowel, it was essentially Y; as a consonant it was Z or G.
Depends on the locality (Scotland <==> England). It derived
from an Old English character (slightly different, more
elaborate glyph).

Dutch is the parent of English. The language of the Angles
arrived through Friesland (north Holland). Dutch, in British
minds, equalled Deutsch -- platen Deutsch. No accident that the
Dutch and Germans understand each other well -- they just have
to tilt the ear a bit.

If you write -- longhand, cursive -- "y-diaeresis" and "ij",
they are indistinguishable. Sound the same too.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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