The Origin of the "long IJ"-symbol

in the Dutch alphabet

Joannes Richter

1 The Ugarit Alphabet (published by Chaos)

self-scan of Old syrian post-card dated in 1985 – Public Domain

Abstract
The Dutch alphabet may deviate from the Latin standard alphabet by using an additional 25 th
character IJ. Additional special characters often have been required for their fundamental religious
symbolism, which may be inherited from the runes or complex philosophical constructs and needed
to be saved for the people's identity. Examples for such letters such as the thorn Þ and the letter Æ
(æ) (in Old-English and in the Icelandic alphabet) may be found in old versions of languages.
As a long vowel the Dutch letter IJ may have played a similar role in philosophical symbolism. In
archaic societies numerous rivers had been considered and honored as “gods” who had to be
honored by long vowels (such as: 1 Aa - 2 Ae - 3 Die - 4 Ee - 5 Ie - 6 IJ 1) in their names. As a great
number of creeks with the names Aa, Ee, and others the larger local rivers IJ and IJssel have been
venerated by a similar long vowel name.
In Latin the “Long I” had been defined as the most important letter-symbol. In Dutch language
however the “Long I” does not belong to the standard character set of the Latin alphabet.
Coincidentally one of the old Mesopotamian cuneiform alphabets (the Ugaritic alphabet) had
arranged the letter IJ (Y) at a special location between the H and K, where the Dutch alphabet also
carries a IJ-combination, which apart from two short vowels also represents a long vowel “IJ”.
Strange as it may seem the Ugaritic alphabet more or less follows an identical ABC-sequence,
which the Dutch alphabet with all its vowels A, E, I, O, U had inherited from the Latin alphabet.
In this article the locations of the Ugaritic “Y”-symbol is compared with the Dutch “IJ”-vowel in
the middle of their neighboring symbols ...F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M...
The true “main character” of the Dutch alphabet may not be the I or J. Instead the letter IJ seems to
be a fundamental symbol, which had to be composed from a vowel I and a consonant J.

1 Aa (waternaam) – including the water-names: 1 Aa - 2 Ae - 3 Die - 4 Ee - 5 Ie - 6 IJ

Introduction
The Dutch alphabet deviates from the standard Latin alphabet by adding a special Dutch character
“the long IJ” at the 25th position.
The addition of special characters to an alphabet often indicates a protection of ancient fundamental
religious symbols, which need to be protected by defining suitable additional characters.
Examples of such symbols may be found in most archaic languages such as the thorn Þ and Æ (æ)
in Old-English and Icelandic alphabets. Apart from the Þ and Æ (æ) the Old-English alphabet also
contains the Ð (ð), Ᵹ/G (ᵹ/g), Ƿ/W (ƿ/w)2 and in Scandinavian languages we may find the additional
characters Ø (ø) and Å (å). The Þ and æ are used for fundamental keywords, which in a language
define the old traditions by special formulas. The thorn Þ is used in the name of the god Thor and
the æ symbolizes fundamentals such as “eternity”, “matrimony”, “law”, “I” (the ego-pronoun in a
Danish dialect3).
We may assume the Dutch special vowel IJ also had been designed to play such a dominant role. In
archaic cultures the rivers had been respected as deities, who had to be honored by giving them
names with long vowels such as Aa4 and Ee.
The rivers IJ and IJssel also carry vowel-names which are similar to Aa and Ee. The name IJ is
correlates with (West-)Frisian waters Ae, Ee or Die. Especially the simple vowel names simply
indicate 'water' (compared to the French word eau).
Compared to higher grounds the words for water may be classified as more important in the
lowlands. This is a classification which the Dutch and Mesopotamian people share,
Studying the Sumerian cuneiform language we may identify the word for water as a vowel “a”.
Inspecting the longer words we may find the runic words IA (“each”, “every”) and AI (“great-
grandfather”) in several languages describe the ancestors “grandfather” (in Sumerian aya) and
“great-grandfather” (Sumerian: “ayaya”, respectively the English words “aye” (“always, ever”) and
æ (“eternity”, in Greek: “aei”)5.
Of course I was aware of these correlations between the Mesopotamian (Ugaritic) and Germanic
(Dutch) languages but I still felt surprised to discover the letter IJ a special location between the H
and K in the Ugaritic alphabet.
The city-state of Ugarit (~1350 BCE–1200 BCE), equipped with an international harbor, has been
identified as one of the first locations in which a cuneiform alphabet had been developed. This late
Bronze Age alphabet contained 30 characters, 27 for consonants, 3 for the vowels a i o, which is a
remarkable feature for a Semitic system.
Another remarkable feature is the ABC-structure in this ancient Ugaritic alphabet, which in large
segments exactly seems to match the corresponding sections of the Latin alphabet, including the
vowels A, E, I, O, U. This is a remarkable theme, because we are supposed to have inherited our
alphabet from the Phoenician people, who designed an alphabet without vowels.
In the following chapters I document and discuss the locations of the letter IJ in the ancient Ugaritic
alphabet in the middle of the alphabetic section ...H, I, J, K... of the Dutch alphabet. I try to
understand in how far the correlations indicate the correct location for the letter-symbols IJ and Y
between the H and K, respectively between X and Z.

2 Of these letters, 20 were directly adopted from the Latin alphabet, two were modified Latin letters (Æ, Ð), and two
developed from the runic alphabet (Ƿ, Þ). The letters K, Q and Z were not in the spelling of native English words.
3 Æ Pronoun – (dialectal, Fjolde) I (first-person singular pronoun)
4 Aa (waternaam)
5 The Backbones of the Alphabets
The Old-English alphabet
In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferð ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological
purposes.[2] He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including et ligature) first, then 5
additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), resulting in a list of 29 symbols6
en wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ 7:
AB C D E FG H I K LM N O PQ R STVXYZ & ⁊ Ƿ Þ ÐÆ
I noticed the letter J is missing. In Dutch this symbol J plays a fundamental role.
These characters may also be arranged at other locations of the alphabet, in which the vowels are
colored blue and special characters are marked yellow. The Æ is both a vowel and a special
character.

Majuscules A Æ B C D Ð E F Ᵹ/G H I L M N O P R S T Þ U Ƿ/W X Y

Minuscules a æ b c d ð e f ᵹ/g h i l m n o p r s/ſ t þ u ƿ/w x y
source ae d g s þ ƿ
transliteration ae d g s th w
Table 1 Majuscules (capital letters) and Minuscules (small letters)

In Old-English the dual form uses a great number of special characters ƿ, þ, ȝ:

The first person nominative is defined as:
I We two we
iċ ƿit ƿē

And the second person nominative is defined as8:

You (s.) You two You all (p.)

þū ȝit ȝē

6 "þæt", in modern English "that"

7 source: Old-English alphabet
8 Old English/Pronouns
The Dutch letter IJ
In Dutch language the letter-symbol ij may be considered as one character and is to be
considered to share the 25th position with the letter “y” in the Dutch alphabet9.

The long ij
According to the old editions of the leading manual/dictionary Van Dale describes the letter-symbol
“ij” as a couple of two “i”-symbols in which the trailing letter is prolonged.
The current spelling of the words with a long ij has been defined in the spelling action titled
Spelling-Siegenbeek (1804, Netherlands).
Before the Spelling-Siegenbeek the word “IJzer” (“iron”) often was to be spelled yzer. In
his manuscripts Multatuli (1820–1887) wrote the letter as “ij”, but ordered the editor to print
the letter as an “y”. According to Multatuli the “ij” did not belong to the alphabet10.

The i-grec
In Latin, Y was named I graeca ("Greek I"), since the classical Greek sound /y/, similar to modern
German ü or French u, was not a native sound for Latin speakers. In Dutch, The Y may be named
Ypsylon, Griekse ij or i-grec. In modern Dutch the usage of the Y is restricted to loanwords.

The official location for the letter ij in the alphabet

In listings of the alphabet the Dutch people will be ending the alphabet with ...iks ij zet or very
rarely ... iks ypsilon zet, iks i-grec zet or iks Grieks ij zet. These naming conventions seem to be
referring to the long ij instead of the “y” (“i-grec” or Ypsylon).
People who claim the ij is a letter want to locate the symbol between x and z, but they
never manage to define what needs to be done with the alternative letter y, which is
needed to be used as a variable in mathematics and to write the words which are
inherited from Greek origins such as “system”.

Some people may claim we need 27 letter-symbols, but they cannot specify the correct
order “x y ij z” or “x ij y z”. Some suggest to modify the existing spelling and abandon
the y altogether, but this claim is not popular enough. 11

Only recently I realized the letter-symbol ij may also be located in the center of the alphabet. Before
I discovered the alphabetic sequence in the archaic Ugaritic alphabet I would not have thought to
locate the ij between the H and K, but now I realize there is a good reason to change my mind.

9 IJ (digraaf)
10 IJ (digraaf)
11 R. Harmsen. De Nederlandse "letter" IJ
The etymology of IJ
The Ugaritic alphabet located the IJ at the 10th position, where today the letter “J” is found.
Now the ij may be considered as a dual character type, composed as a pair “ii” of two “i” symbols,
in which the second “i” is prolonged. This allows us:
1. to read the I and J in the alphabet as two individual characters I and J, which both represent
phonemes /i/ and /j/,
and simultaneously:
2. to read the combination “IJ” as one letter, which automatically represent a long vowel.
This is an economical use of the alphabet to be proud of.

Doubled “ee” and “ii” or “ij”

Another vowel combination “ee”, equivalent to the Old English word æ (law, scripture, ceremony,
custom, marriage)12, is comparable to the “ii”-couple.
The Dutch core “ee” (‘law’, “marriage”), which is found in “eega” (the matrimonial partner)
and “eebreken” (breaking the matrimonial law by Adultery), is to be interpreted as an
“eternal” link. The repetition of vowels in “ee” and “ii” refers to the “eternity”-symbol.
Only the long vowels seemed to have empowered the eternal continuity.
In the Danish word † ægte ‘matrimony’ we may find the vowel combination æ (“eternal”).

The long vowels in Greek language

For long vowels the Greeks defined special characters H (long ee and ae) and Ω (long oo and ou).
The corresponding short vowels were E (epsilon) “ε” respectively O-micron “o”.
In Greek only the archaic vowels A, I and U could be used for long and short vowels.

The long vowels in Latin language

In Latin four vowels could be turned into long vowels á é ó vv (for the phonemes /aː eː oː uː/). In
contrast the long I character had to be encoded by a special symbol ⟨”ꟾ”⟩ which clearly classifies the
“i”-vowel as the most important symbol of the alphabet.13 The ”ꟾ” had been written slightly taller
than the common character “I”, which may be illustrated in the following sample:

Fig. 2: The word “Nemausi” containing a trailing long I character

Roman inscription, ca. AD 100, showing long eyes contrasting with apices on other vowels.
Scriptura con apices Nimes 1750.jpg - Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 (author QuartierLatin1968, 2010).

12 From Proto-Germanic *aiwō, *aiwaz (“law”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂oywos (“eternity, law”). Cognate with
Old Saxon êo, Old Frisian ewa, êwe, ê, â, Old High German êwa, êha, êa, ê (German Ehe).
13 Source: Long I
The long vowels in Dutch language
In Dutch language the long vowels have been repeated to symbolize long vowels for “a” → “aa”
(“maar”), “e” → “ee” (“meer”), “o” → “oo” (“door”), “u” → “uu” (“duur”), but there are no words
with an “ii” (double “i”). An alternative solution may be “ie” (“lied”) or “ei” (“meid”).
As the Dutch alphabet did not provide a special definition like (ꟾ⟩ for the long I the “ij” may have
been promoted to “ij” (“tijd”).
The real explanation may have been kept secret if the theme belonged to religious fundamentals.
Maybe the “J” originally had been designed as an alternative “long_I” ⟨”ꟾ”⟩ in the combination “ij”
resulting in “I ꟾ”.
The Ugaritic alphabet
In this overview the Ugaritic alphabet is displayed as a series of letters, which to a large extent
follows the sequence of the Latin and Greek alphabets including their vowels:
Greek alphabet AΒΓΔ Ε F ΖH Θ I ΚΛΜΝ OΠ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Ω
Old-Latin A DE F H I K MN O S V
Latin alphabet abcde f gh i j k l mn op q r s t u v w x y z
Table 2 Greek and Latin alphabets

In the following table of the Ugaritic alphabet the ABC-oriented sequence a, b, g, d, h, k, l, m, n,

p, q, r, t, u will be marked blue.
Intermediate letters ḫ(x), d(ð) and ṣ are marked yellow. The ṣ is located inside the series p, ṣ, q,
r, but missed the correct position. The h may have to be interpreted as an “e”. The ?u may
eventually be positioned at the location for u, v, w.
This sequence of the Ugaritic alphabe:
?a, b, g, ḫ(x), d, h,
w, z, ḩ (ℏ), ṭ, y, k,
š, l, m, d(ð), n, ẓ (θ),
s, Ҁ, p, ṣ, q, r,
t (θ), ꬶ (γ), t, ?i, ?u, s2
In the table the character W may be interpreted as a digamma (Ϝ/Ͷ, Minuscule ϝ/ͷ) which in the
Ugaritic alphabet is interpreted as a “w”. Z is “Zeta” at the correct location for a Zeta in Greek
alphabets:

Fig. 3: The Ugaritic alphabet

The words in the center of the alphabet
In the following comparison table (between a Greek alphabet and and the Ugaritic alphabet) we
man identify a Θ between the H and I in the Greek alphabet. In the Ugaritic alphabet we may
identify the corresponding letters ḩ, ṭ, y:
Greek alphabet AΒΓΔ Ε F ΖH Θ I ΚΛΜΝ OΠ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Ω
Ugaritic
alphabet a bγd hwz ḩ ṭ yk l mn Ҁp q r s t u

Table 3 Comparison table between a Greek alphabet and and the Ugaritic alphabet

The comparison between both alphabets now suggests to correlate the letters H, Θ and I of the
Greek alphabet with the letters ḩ, ṭ, y the Ugaritic alphabet.
At the location of the Θ the Latin alphabet the Latin alphabet positioned an I, whereas the Greek
Jota left a J in the Latin alphabet where the Ugaritic alphabet located a “y”.
In the Old-Greek alphabet the H represented the sound /h/, but later the Η or η (èta, æ) turned into a
phoneme /E:/.

Ugaritic alphabet a b γ d h ḩ ṭ yk l mn pq r s t u
Greek alphabet AΒ Γ Δ Ε F Ζ HΘ I ΚΛΜ Ν OΠ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Ω
Old Latin A DEF H IK MN O S V
Latin alphabet abcd e fgh i j k l mn opqrs t uvwxyz
Dutch alphabet abcd e fgh i j k l mn o p q r s t u v w x y z ij
Table 4 Comparison table of the Ugaritic alphabet with Greek, Latin and Dutch alphabets

The dual form in the Ugaritic alphabet

The dual form in the Ugaritic alphabet is defined as follows: 14
Person singular Dual form Plural
1e ʼannu, ʼannāku "I"
male ʼatta "you" (s.) ʼattumā "you two" ʼattum- "you all"
2e
female ʼatta "you" (s.)
male huwa[1] "he" hum-[1] "they"
3e humā "they both"
female hiya[1] "she"

The Ugaritic dual form does not correlate to the Old-Dutch “wit” (“we two”).

14 Personal pronouns in Ugaritic grammar

Comparing the Ugaritic, Greek, Latin and
Dutch alphabets
In his translation from Greek to Gothic bishop Ulfila obviously positioned the symbol “Theta” (ᚦ)
at position 10 between the H and the I.
After inserting the Ugaritic alphabet in the following table we may observe how correct the Y
belongs at the position #10. This IJ belongs to the most important categories “I” (“Yod”) of the
alphabet.
I feel astonished how fine the Ugaritic alphabet matches to the Greek alphabet.

Keyword
ᚠᚢᚦ (f,u,þ) ᚦ ᚢ ᚠ
Insertion ↓ ↓ ↓
Vowels Α Ε Η Ι
j Υ Ω
Gothic alphabet Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϛ Ζ Η Φ Ψ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν G ᚢ Π Ϙ R S, Τ Υ Ϝ ΧΘ
Ω Ͳ
ϰ ᛃ Σ F ᛟ Ϡ
Transliteration a b g d e q z h þ i k l m n j u p q r s t w f x ƕ o
↓ ↓ ↓
Greek alphabet AΒΓΔ Ε F ΖH Θ I ΚΛΜΝ OΠ Ρ Σ Τ Υ Χ Ω
Old Latin A DE F H I K MN O S V
Latin alphabet a bcd e f gh i j k l mn op q r s t u v w x y z
Ugaritic ABC a bγd h ϝ Zḩ ṭ yk l mn Ҁp q r s t u
Numeric value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Gothic alphabet 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Table 5 The concept for the Gothic alphabet by Ulfila, bishop of the Visigoths
The main letter IJ of the Dutch alphabet
Suppose there may have been a Thing, in which the congregation had to decide which alphabetical
symbol should be chosen to form the highest rank of all characters.
This theme probably quickly concentrated on the letters I, J and eventually Y, but then the
converging power seemed to be lost and wound up in a strange stalemate-situation.
Probably the main letter of the Dutch alphabet cannot be chosen from I or J, but may be composed
from both I and J to form a IJ-combination. The choice between the I and J could lead to a clearly
dominant decision and the solution was found in composing both I & J in one new letter IJ.

The river's name IJ respectively IJssel

In Dutch and in the Netherlands the names IJ respectively IJssel symbolize locally important rivers,
which originally may have represented deiteis.

The English ego-pronoun Y

In one of the first translations of the Bible John Wyclif (~1330 – 1384) used the ego-pronoun Y
instead of “I” (or “ic”), for instance:
10 And Adam seide, Y herde thi vois in paradijs, and Y drede, for Y was nakid, and Y
hidde me. (Genesis, Chapter 3, vers 10).

The English dialects inherited words from their Dutch neighbors and also may have inherited IJ as
an alternative to IJ.
The personal pronoun “I” of the first person singular belongs to the most important words in any
language and often correlates to the Name of the Creator God such aus Tyr.
Ans isn't it curious the English words Y and I in Wyclif's Bible had been written in capital letters?
This honor of majuscules also had been applied for the names of the days of the week.

A “Royal me” instead of a “Royal we”

The Royal we, or majestic plural (pluralis maiestatis), is the use of a plural pronoun (or
corresponding plural-inflected verb forms) to refer to a single person who is a monarch. The more
general word for the use of a we, us, or our to refer to oneself is nosism.
The opposite of the “Royal we” is the “royal me”.
In the royal letter number 10317 William, Prince of Orange used a majestic singular15, in which he
wrote the old Dutch ego-pronoun “ic” (“I”) with a capital letter.
The prince repeatedly used the following words in this letter:
• "Ic", "Ick" - (“I”) with a capital letter,
• "meyn", "myn" repeatedly with small letters,
• "ghy" with a small letter,
• "Ulieder", "ulieden" more or less ad lib with small letters or capital letters,
• "Godt" always with a capital letter.

15 o..a. Beschreven in Het Boek Tuisco (2010)

Brief 10317 van William (Prince) of Orange
William (Prince) of Orange
to the Dutch Churches in England
Delft, Thursday, 26 February 1573

Myne heeren Ic duncke dat tot noch toe ghy hebt moghen ghenouchsaemlick bekennen den goeden
wille die my Godt ghegheuen heeft, om Vlieder arme vaderlant in vryheyt te stellen zo wel in tgene
dat angaet de politie16 desselfs, als de religie ende hoe dat Ick verdraghen hebbe ontellicke
moyelicheden, dat Ic selfs meyn eyghen leven ghewaecht hebbe om tot desen ende te commen.
Waert dat Ic sowel de macht17 ende mogentheit hadde, als den goeden wille, Ick18 ware te vreden
alle het last vp myn schouderen te nemen, sonder yemant eenichsins daer mede te bezwaren19.
tWelck ghy hebt moghen verstaen20 vutedien dat Ic vlieden hier te vooren21 niet seer beswaert
hebbe, Insulckerwys dat Ic soude begheeren ten coste van myn eyghen leuen (waertmy moghelich)
tlant vuttecoopen ofte verlossen van de slauernye22 der goederen, lichamen, ende zielen daer in het
is, sonder dattet yemant yet costen soude.
Maer vlieden ghemerct dat mynen wensch niet en baet, ende dat myn eighen macht23 niet
ghenouchsaem is24 voor zulcken last, Ic ben bedwonghen helpe te begheeren eyst25 niet an alle
waere Christenen dien onghetwifelt dese zake belanct, ten minsten an die guene26, den welcken
(ghemerct sy van een lant zyn) de sake schynt naerder an te gaen. Ende namelick tot vlieden die vut
sonderlicke weldaet gods zyt vertrocken in een plaetse der ruste stilheyt. Dat den noot zeer groot zy
ziet ghy, ende daer es niemant onder V diess onwetende.

Het slot van deze bede luidt:

… Ja eenyeder als Ic achte zal bekennen dat Ic onachtsaemlick verlaten ben27 gheweest van die der28
welcker getrauwicheit my behoorde ghedient thebben tot bystant ende hulpe...

Van Delft desen 26 dach Februarij 1573.

V Lieder goede Vrient Guillaume
van Nassau
Bouen stont geschreuen Aende Dienaeren Ouderlinghen ende Diaconen der gemeenten van Londen
Norwits Sandwits Medston Colchester Ypswich eende Tetfort.

16 den staet
17 cracht
18 Ic soude geraden vinden
19 belasten
20 erkennen
21 voormaels
22 dienstbaerheyt
23 crachten
24 zyn
25 so
26 addition above the line by the corrector
27 “hebben” altered to “ben” by the corrector
28 addition above the line by the corrector
Abstract
The Dutch alphabet may deviate from the Latin standard alphabet by using an additional 25 th
character IJ. Additional special characters often have been required for their fundamental religious
symbolism, which may be inherited from the runes or complex philosophical constructs and needed
to be saved for the people's identity. Examples for such letters such as the thorn Þ and the letter Æ
(æ) (in Old-English and in the Icelandic alphabet) may be found in old versions of languages.
As a long vowel the Dutch letter IJ may have played a similar role in philosophical symbolism. In
archaic societies numerous rivers had been considered and honored as “gods” who had to be
honored by long vowels (such as: 1 Aa - 2 Ae - 3 Die - 4 Ee - 5 Ie - 6 IJ 29) in their names. As a great
number of creeks with the names Aa, Ee, and others the larger local rivers IJ and IJssel have been
venerated by a similar long vowel name.
In Latin the “Long I” had been defined as the most important letter-symbol. In Dutch language
however the “Long I” does not belong to the standard character set of the Latin alphabet.
Coincidentally one of the old Mesopotamian cuneiform alphabets (the Ugaritic alphabet) had
arranged the letter IJ (Y) at a special location between the H and K, where the Dutch alphabet also
carries a IJ-combination, which apart from two short vowels also represents a long vowel “IJ”.
Strange as it may seem the Ugaritic alphabet more or less follows an identical ABC-sequence,
which the Dutch alphabet with all its vowels A, E, I, O, U had inherited from the Latin alphabet.
In this article the locations of the Ugaritic “Y”-symbol is compared with the Dutch “IJ”-vowel in
the middle of their neighboring symbols ...F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M...
The true “main character” of the Dutch alphabet may not be the I or J. Instead the letter IJ seems to
be a fundamental symbol, which had to be composed from a vowel I and a consonant J.

29 Aa (waternaam) – including the water-names: 1 Aa - 2 Ae - 3 Die - 4 Ee - 5 Ie - 6 IJ

Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................2
The Old-English alphabet ....................................................................................................................3
The Dutch letter IJ................................................................................................................................4
The long ij........................................................................................................................................4
The i-grec.........................................................................................................................................4
The official location for the letter ij in the alphabet........................................................................4
The etymology of IJ.........................................................................................................................5
Doubled “ee” and “ii” or “ij”......................................................................................................5
The long vowels in Greek language............................................................................................5
The long vowels in Latin language.............................................................................................5
The long vowels in Dutch language............................................................................................6
The Ugaritic alphabet...........................................................................................................................7
The words in the center of the alphabet...........................................................................................8
The dual form in the Ugaritic alphabet............................................................................................8
Comparing the Ugaritic, Greek, Latin and Dutch alphabets ...............................................................9
The main letter IJ of the Dutch alphabet............................................................................................10
The river's name IJ respectively IJssel...........................................................................................10
The English ego-pronoun Y...........................................................................................................10
A “Royal me” instead of a “Royal we”..........................................................................................10
Brief 10317 van William (Prince) of Orange............................................................................11
Abstract...............................................................................................................................................12