Alphabet Charts
Handwritten Samples
Dutch is a Germanic language and comes from Old Saxon, and resembles the German and English languages. Latin also commonly appears in old Dutch records. Dutch occasionally appear in French as the Netherlands has a strong, tangled history with France and thus reflects strong French influence.
The handwriting favors English and French styles and not the old German scripts, although in areas near the German border and some Lutheran church records may be written in a German script. The alphabet contains 26 letters that are much like the English alphabet with only one extra letter – ij.
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, ij (or y), z
Some Dutch dictionaries and lists (such as ten-year tables) place words or names that start with the letter, or digraph, /IJ/ between the /I/ and /J/ and not where the /Y/ is usually found.
The letter ‘x’ is rarely seen in Dutch script, as it is only used in words borrowed from other languages. This is also the case with the Y.
The letter /IJ/ is considered as a single character that represents a distinct sound. The /Y/ and /IJ/ can be interchangeable , especially in the 16th century.
| A | 
|
| B | 
|
| C | 
|
| D | 
|
| E | 
|
| F | 
|
| G | 
|
| H | 
|
| I | 
|
| J | 
|
| K | 
|
| L | 
|
| M | 
|
| N | 
|
| O | 
|
| P | 
|
| Q | 
|
| R | 
|
| S | 
|
| T | 
|
| U | 
|
| V | 
|
| W | 
|
| X | 
|
| Y | 
|
| Z | 
|
IJ | 
|