Dutch Reformed SA question about ( Y )'s with 2 dots over the letter.
Have seen a lot of conflicting opinions about this. One person said ALWAYS put in ( ij ) to replace the ( Y ). Other times I see some place names put in ( i ) only or ( y ) only [Without dots]. I need someone's final decision on this matter.
Answers
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It is my understanding that in (modern) Dutch, ij versus ÿ is essentially a typographic difference only, similar to how some fonts/scripts have a crossbar on a capital J, and some don't. However, I don't know whether these records are actually in Dutch, or Afrikaans; the latter has apparently evolved spelling rules/practices divergent from Dutch.
Failing Word From On High, I guess we fall back on the basic rule: index what you see. If it has dots, don't index it as plain 'y', and if it's clearly written as a single letter, don't index it as two letters. Of course, that's still a judgement call, because all cursive letters are conjoined to some degree....
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I am unfamiliar with the project but know that there is an icon for international letters. It is next to the the project instructions. When typing in the field information, find the character you are looking for (y with 2 dots) and click on it. It will place it in the field where your cursor is.
That way you are "typing what you see", not guessing what was intended. Hope it works for you.
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The Afrikaan genealogy community insists on replacing the y with ij. Also to Ignore marks above the u's as well, unless it has 2 dots above it. I flagged the reply {MaureenE123} sent me last December.
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The y with the umlaut (two dots) above it does not always look like a ij. It is sometimes difficult to tell.
I am going to index what I see. I am not going to replace a letter. If it looks like y, but is confusing, I index it the way one would an alias: I type what I see, and then also add the name again with the ij in place of the y.
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I see plenty on y's in the Dutch Reformed without the dots. This makes things even more confusing. I just hope the Spirit is guiding me while indexing or reviewing these.
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