superkoning t1_jac5cmx wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:08 AM

Reply to comment by Aramor42 in W is the only letter in the alphabet with more than one syllable by chronolucks

but only for the special cases. When a Dutch persons says the alfabet, he/she will say "ij" (no idea what that is in English phonetic).

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJ_(digraaf)

ijs = ij s

Het IJ. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJ_(rivier)

Aramor42 t1_jac5ll4 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:11 AM

True, when reciting the alphabet. However, in my experience, when you're spelling something out people usually say iegrek or Griekse IJ.

superkoning t1_jac61wk wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:17 AM

Really?

Spell "ijs" ... "lange ij - s"

Spell "eis" ... "korte ei - s"

Spell "x + y = 5" ... "x plus ij is vijf"

Excpetions:

Spell "dyslexie, hymne, gymnasium, idylle, mysterie, pygmeeën, symfonie,symposium, symptoom, ypsilon." ... then I would say "griekse ij" and maybe maybe "ygrek" ... as there are no dots on the y (unlike ij)

Aramor42 t1_jac72f7 wrote on February 28, 2023 at 11:30 AM

Yeah but the exceptions are actually with an y. Ijs and eis are not spelled with an y, so when spelling those out one wouldn't say ygrek or Griekse ij.

I was only talking about the letter y, not ei or ij.