Re: "Kerning?" (fwd)

["..." adpf@xxxxxxxx]

Forwarded message:
 From: DickWeltz@xxxxxxxx
 Date: Thu, 20 Feb 1997 15:41:27 -0500 (EST)

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 Sorry, but I've been through this too many times. IJ regardless of case is,
 indeed, an indivisible character combination in Dutch, and is treated as a
 single letter -- sometimes kerned to where the uninitiated may "think" what
 they are seeing is Y with a dieresis.

 However, Y with a dieresis is NOT used in the NORMAL orthography of any
 modern language. There are two or three French singers who use the character
 as an affectation in spelling their own names; but, we manage (and have for a
 long time) to typeset just about any language you can name (and a few hundred
 you can't) without EVER requiring the character. Its placement in the
 computer character set is a mistake (note, incidentally, that the character
 shows only in lowercase form).

 This question was discussed internationally about a year ago on one of the
 newsgroups, and nobody was able (except for the singers' names) to provide
 any examples of words using such a character in normal language. The
 y-dieresis may be categorized with the tooth fairy and easter bunny eggs.

 -- Dick