There seems to be two ways of spelling for ‘van Gogh’: with small v or big V. It may have some reason I do not know having small van in the middle of Vincent van Gogh, but why do they still spell small van in the first part of his shortened name Van Gogh? I hope the answer to be added why they use small van in the middle of three words?
Learn English – Why do they use small van in van Gogh
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I think you mean you truly appreciate our answers, because--like it or not--that is the modern spelling. You are free to differ from the norm.
I don't know the why (other than an arbitrary rule or practice, such as the one below from the OED), but the how is almost certainly due to dictionary standardization, or standardisation if you prefer the BrE spelling.
EDIT:
from the OED (which gives observations, not rules):
...
When -ly is attached to a disyllabic or polysyllabic adj. in -le, the word is contracted, as in ably, doubly, singly, simply; contractions of this kind occur already in the 14th c., but examples of the uncontracted forms (e.g. doublely) are found as late as the 17th c.Whole + -ly suffix2 becomes wholly, but in all other similar instances the written e is retained before the suffix, e.g. in palely, vilely, puerilely.
Adjs. ending graphically with ll lose one l before -ly, as in fully (in southern English commonly pronounced with a single l, but in Scotland often with double or long l), dully /ˈdʌllɪ/ , coolly /ˈkuːllɪ/ . Adjs. of more than one syll. ending in y change y to i before -ly, as in merrily; in formations from monosyllabic adjs. the usage varies, e.g. dryly, drily; gayly, gaily (cf. daily adj., which is the only current form); slyly, slily (but always shyly); greyly, grayly has always y. Another orthographical point is the dropping of the e in the two words duly, truly.
Another orthographical point is the dropping of the e in the two words duly, truly.
It is unusual to append -ly to an adj. in -ic; the ending of the adv. is nearly always -ically suffix, even when the only current form of the adj. ends in -ic.
Note the "rule" and then the exceptions, duly and truly--so there is no real reason other than this arbitrary practice, and these spellings became enshrined in a dictionary.
The influential 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson spells the word as truly. Here is the entry snipped from the online version:
Corresponding to publiction in dictionary, there is no spelling of the word in the entry for truly in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) that deviates from the spelling truly after about 1700. Truly existed before, along with variant spellings. (Truely exists in other entries after 1700.)
Another word, blue, whose modern adverbial form bluely exists from the late 16th century, was also spelled blewly and bluly before about 1750.
And although we retain the e in nicely and bluely, we do not in wholly and duly--which are also how the 1755 dictionary spells the words. Frankly, these rules are arbitrary, and wholely and duely look about as good as truely.
The OED has the the apostrophes placed as: fo'c'sle.
Pronunciation is a little more tricky. Originally, it would have been pronounced and written in the long form:
1624 J. Smith Gen. Hist. Virginia iii. vi. 62 Targets..about the forepart of our Boat like a fore-castle.
Today though, the naval shortened pronunciation 'Fok-sel' is most widely used and I believe, although I can't find a reference to support it, that it's become something of a shibboleth in boating circles
Best Answer
There's a long discussion of this point in the Talk section of Wikipedia. The upshot seems to be that the official Dutch convention (the painter was a native of the Netherlands) requires a separate prefix ("tussenvoegsel") on a surname, such as van or de, to be lowercased when it is preceded by the forename or initial but capitalized when it is not.
These prefixes are mostly prepositions or articles and are regarded as secondary; in alphabetical lists the name is entered under the first letter of the 'primary' name, not the prefix.
Such rules vary from country to country, and in 'ungoverned' languages like English are left to individual writers and institutions to work out on their own. Here, for instance, are the house rules for alphabetizing at the Yale University Music Library, and here are the rules for capitlization.