>
> When I see people writing in Dutch, their cursive "ij" is really
> indistinguishable from a "y" with umlaut. And in print, there is a difference
> between the letter "ij" and a simple "i" followed by "j": the space between the
> two components of the letter "ij" is smaller than the space between the two
> separate letters (it's called "negative kerning" in font language :)) ), and
> this difference is visible. Note also that if a store has its name above it
> with separate neon letters, "ij" always makes a single letter, not two.
If a store actually has that, it looks very silly and old fashioned.
> Despite
> what Boudewijn says, "ij" is seen as a single letter very strongly by most
> Dutch people, even though they have no problem approximating it with "i"+"j"
> when there is no other possibility (although I've seen quite a few people
> preferring to approximate it by "y" instead, especially in capital form).
>
I don't think that's correct at all.