Y Murat Halstad

Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh if including W) vowel letter of the English alphabet. In the English writing system, it mostly represents a vowel and seldom a consonant, and in other orthographies it may represent a vowel or a consonant. Its name in English is ''wye'' (pronounced ), plural ''wyes''.

Name

In Latin, Y was named ''I graeca'' ("Greek I"), since the classical Greek sound , similar to modern German ''ü'' or French ''u'', was not a native sound for Latin speakers, and the letter was initially only used to spell foreign words. This history has led to the standard modern names of the letter in Romance languages – ''i grego'' in Galician, ''i grega'' in Catalan, ''i grec'' in French and Romanian, ''i greca'' in Italian – all meaning "Greek I". The names ''igrek'' in Polish and ' in Vietnamese are both phonetic borrowings of the French name. In Dutch, the letter is either only found in loanwords, or is practically equivalent to the digraph IJ. Hence, both ''Griekse ij'' and ''i-grec'' are used, as well as ''ypsilon''. In Spanish, Y is also called ''i griega''; however, in the twentieth century, the shorter name ''ye'' was proposed and was officially recognized as its name in 2010 by the Real Academia Española, although its original name is still accepted.

The original Greek name υ ψιλόν ('' upsilon'') has also been adapted into several modern languages. For example, it is called ''Ypsilon'' in German, ''ypsilon'' in Dutch, '' i'' in Icelandic. Both names are used in Italian, ''ipsilon'' or ''i greca''; likewise in Portuguese, ''ípsilon'' or ''i grego''. In Faroese, the letter is simply called ''seinna i'' ("later i") because of its later place in the alphabet.

Old English borrowed Latin Y to write the native Old English sound (previously written with the rune yr ). The name of the letter may be related to 'ui' (or 'vi') in various medieval languages; in Middle English it was 'wi' , which through the Great Vowel Shift became the Modern English 'wy' .

History

The oldest direct ancestor of English letter Y was the Semitic letter ''waw'' (pronounced as ), from which also come F, U, V, and W. See F for details. The Greek and Latin alphabets developed from the Phoenician form of this early alphabet.

Since Late Middle English, the letter Y came to be used in a number of words where earlier Middle English spelling contained the letter ''yogh'' (Ȝȝ), which developed from the letter G, ultimately from Semitic '' gimel'' – as described below (As a side note - Modern Greek lowercase gamma is somewhat similarly shaped to the lowercase letter ).

Vowel

The form of the modern letter Y is derived from the Greek letter '' upsilon''. It dates back to the Latin of the first century BC, when upsilon was introduced a second time, this time with its "foot" to distinguish it. It was used to transcribe loanwords from the prestigious Attic dialect of Greek, which had the non-Latin vowel sound (as found in modern French ''cru'' (raw), or German ''grün'' (green)) in words that had been pronounced with in earlier Greek. Because was not a native sound of Latin, Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing it, and it was usually pronounced . Some Latin words of Italic origin also came to be spelled with 'y': Latin ''silva'' ('forest') was commonly spelled ''sylva'', in analogy with the Greek cognate and synonym ''ὕλη''.

The letter Y was used to represent the sound in the writing systems of some other languages that adopted the Latin alphabet. In Old English and Old Norse, there was a native sound, and so Latin U, Y and I were all used to represent distinct vowel sounds. But, by the time of Middle English, had lost its roundedness and became identical to I ( and ). Therefore, many words that originally had I were spelled with Y, and vice versa. The distinction between and was also lost in later Icelandic and Faroese, making the distinction purely orthographic and historical, but not in the mainland Scandinavian languages, where the distinction is retained. It may be observed that a similar merger of into happened in Greek around the beginning of the 2nd millennium, making the distinction between iota (Ι, ι) and upsilon (Υ, υ) purely a matter of historical spelling there as well. In the West Slavic languages, Y was adapted as a sign for the close central unrounded vowel ; later, merged with in Czech and Slovak, whereas Polish retains it with the pronunciation . Similarly, in Middle Welsh, Y came to be used to designate the vowels and in a way predictable from the position of the vowel in the word. Since then, has merged with in Southern Welsh dialects, but is retained.

In Modern English, Y can represent the same vowel sounds as the letter I. The use of the letter Y to represent a vowel is more restricted in Modern English than it was in Middle and early Modern English. It occurs mainly in the following three environments: for upsilon in Greek loan-words (''system'': Greek σύστημα), at the end of a word (''rye, city''; compare ''cities'', where S is final), and in place of I before the ending ''-ing'' (''dy-ing'', ''justify-ing'').

Consonant

As a consonant in English, Y normally represents a palatal approximant, (''year'', ''yore''). In this usage, the letter Y has replaced the Middle English letter ''yogh'' (Ȝȝ), which could represent . (Yogh could also represent other sounds, such as , which came to be written '' gh'' in Middle English.)

Confusion in writing with the letter ''thorn''

When printing was introduced to Great Britain, Caxton and other English printers used Y in place of Þ (thorn: Modern English ''th''), which did not exist in continental typefaces. From this convention comes the spelling of ''the'' as ''ye'' in the mock archaism '' Ye Olde Shoppe''. But, in spite of the spelling, pronunciation was the same as for modern ''the'' (stressed , unstressed ). Pronouncing the article ''ye'' as ''yee'' () is purely a modern spelling pronunciation.

Pronunciation and use

English

As :
* at the beginning of a word as in ''yes''
* at the beginning of a syllable before a vowel as in ''beyond, lawyer, canyon''
As :
* under stress in an open syllable as in ''my'', ''type'', ''rye'', ''lying'', ''pyre'', ''tyre'', ''typhoon''
* in a stressed open syllable as in ''hyphen'', ''cycle'', ''cylon''
* in a pretonic open syllable as in ''hypothesis'', ''psychology''
* word-finally after a consonant, as in ''ally'', ''unify''
As :
* without stress at the end of multi-syllable word, as in ''happy, baby, lucky, accuracy''
* used as a diphthong in combination with ''e'' at the end of some words, as in ''money'', ''key'', ''valley''
As non-syllabic :
* in diphthongs at the end of words, as in ''play'', ''grey'', ''boy''
As :
* in a closed syllable without stress and with stress as in ''myth'', ''system'', ''gymnastics''
* in a closed syllable under stress as in ''typical'', ''lyric''
* in an open syllable without stress as in ''physique'', ''pyjamas''
Other:
* combining with as under stress (like in ''bird''), as in ''myrtle'', ''myrrh''
* as (schwa) in words like ''martyr''

In English morphology, ''-y'' is an adjectival suffix.

Y is the ninth least frequently used letter in the English language (after P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, and Z), with a frequency of about 2% in words.

Other languages

represents the sounds or (sometimes long) in the Scandinavian languages. It can never be a consonant (except for loanwords).

In Dutch and German, appears only in loanwords and proper names.

In Dutch, it usually represents . It may sometimes be left out of the Dutch alphabet and replaced with the digraph. In addition, and are occasionally used instead of Dutch and , albeit very rarely.

In German orthography, the pronunciation has taken hold since the 19th century in classical loanwords – for instance in words like ''typisch'' 'typical', ''Hyäne, Hysterie, mysteriös, Syndrom, System, Typ''. It is also used for the sound in loanwords, such as ''Yacht (variation spelling: Jacht), Yak, Yeti''; however, e.g. yo-yo is spelled "''Jo-Jo''" in German, and yoghurt/yogurt/yoghourt "''Jog(h)urt''" ostly spelled with h. The letter is also used in many geographical names, e.g. ''Bayern'' Bavaria, ''Ägypten'' Egypt, ''Libyen'' Libya, ''Paraguay'', ''Syrien'' Syria, ''Uruguay'', ''Zypern'' Cyprus (but: ''Jemen'' Yemen, ''Jugoslawien'' Yugoslavia). Especially in German names, the pronunciations or occur as well – for instance in the name ''Meyer'', where it serves as a variant of , cf. '' Meier'', another common spelling of the name. In German the y is preserved in the plural form of some loanwords such as ''Babys'' babies and ''Partys'' parties, celebrations.

A that derives from the ligature occurs in the Afrikaans language, a descendant of Dutch, and in Alemannic German names. In Afrikaans, it denotes the diphthong . In Alemannic German names, it denotes long , for instance in ''Schnyder'' or '' Schwyz'' – the cognate non-Alemannic German names ''Schneider'' or '' Schweiz'' have the diphthong that developed from long .

In Hungarian orthography, y is only used in the digraphs "gy," "ly," "ny," "ty," in some surnames (e. g. ''Bátory''), and in foreign words.

In Icelandic writing system, due to the loss of the Old Norse rounding of the vowel , the letters and are now pronounced identically to the letters and , namely as and respectively. The difference in spelling is thus purely etymological. In Faroese, too, the contrast has been lost, and is always pronounced , whereas the accented versions and designate the same diphthong (shortened to in some environments). In both languages, it can also form part of diphthongs such as (in both languages), pronounced , and , pronounced (Faroese only).

In French orthography, is pronounced as when a vowel (as in the words ''cycle'', ''y'') and as as a consonant (as in ''yeux'', ''voyez''). It alternates orthographically with in the conjugations of some verbs, indicating a sound. In most cases when follows a vowel, it modifies the pronunciation of the vowel: , , . The letter has double function (modifying the vowel as well as being pronounced as or ) in the words ''payer'', ''balayer'', ''moyen'', ''essuyer'', ''pays'', etc., but in some words it has only a single function: in ''bayer'', ''mayonnaise'', ''coyote''; modifying the vowel at the end of proper names like ''Chardonnay'' and ''Fourcroy''. In French can have a diaeresis (''tréma'') as in Moÿ-de-l'Aisne.

In Spanish, was used as a word-initial form of that was more visible. (German has used in a similar way.) Hence, ''el yugo y las flechas'' was a symbol sharing the initials of Isabella I of Castille (''Ysabel'') and Ferdinand II of Aragon. This spelling was reformed by the Royal Spanish Academy and currently is only found in proper names spelled archaically, such as Ybarra or CYII, the symbol of the Canal de Isabel II. Appearing alone as a word, the letter is a grammatical conjunction with the meaning "and" in Spanish and is pronounced . As a consonant, represents in Spanish. The letter is called ''i/y griega'', literally meaning "Greek I", after the Greek letter ypsilon, or ''ye''.

In Portuguese, (called ''ípsilon'' in Brazil, and either ''ípsilon'' or ''i grego'' in Portugal) was, together with and , recently reintroduced as the 25th letter, and 19th consonant, of the Portuguese alphabet, in consequence of the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990. It is mostly used in loanwords from English, Japanese and Spanish. Loanwords in general, primarily gallicisms in both varieties, are more common in Brazilian Portuguese than in European Portuguese. It was always common for Brazilians to stylize Tupi-influenced names of their children with the letter (which is present in most Romanizations of Old Tupi) e.g. Guaracy, Jandyra, Mayara – though placenames and loanwords derived from indigenous origins had the letter substituted for over time e.g. Nictheroy became Niterói.
Usual pronunciations are , , and (the two latter ones are inexistent in European and Brazilian Portuguese varieties respectively, being both substituted by in other dialects). The letters and are regarded as phonemically not dissimilar, though the first corresponds to a vowel and the latter to a consonant, and both can correspond to a semivowel depending on its place in a word.

Italian, too, has (''ipsilon'') in a small number of loanwords. The letter is also common in some surnames native to the German-speaking province of Bolzano, such as Mayer or Mayr.

In Guaraní, it represents the vowel .

In Polish, it represents the vowel (or, according to some descriptions, ), which is clearly different from , e.g. ''my'' (we) and ''mi'' (me). No native Polish word begins with ; very few foreign words keep at the beginning, e.g. ''yeti'' (pronounced ).

In Czech and Slovak, the distinction between the vowels expressed by and , as well as by and has been lost (similarly to Icelandic and Faroese), but the consonants ''d, t, n'' (also ''l'' in Slovak) before orthographic (and historical) are not palatalized, whereas they are before . can never begin any word, while can never begin a native word.

In Welsh, it is usually pronounced in non-final syllables and or (depending on the accent) in final syllables.

In the Standard Written Form of the Cornish Language, it represents the and of Revived Middle Cornish and the and of Revived Late Cornish. It can also represent Tudor and Revived Late Cornish and and consequently be replaced in writing with . It is also used in forming a number of diphthongs. As a consonant it represents .

In Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Karelian and Albanian, is always pronounced .

In Estonian, is used in foreign proper names and is pronounced as in the source language. It is also unofficially used as a substitute for and is pronounced the same as in Finnish.

In Lithuanian, is the 15th letter (following and preceding in the alphabet) and is a vowel. It is called ''the long i'' and is pronounced , like in English ''see''.

When used as a vowel in Vietnamese, the letter represents the sound ; when it is a monophthong, it is functionally equivalent to the Vietnamese letter . There have been efforts to replace all such uses with altogether, but they have been largely unsuccessful. As a consonant, it represents the palatal approximant. The capital letter is also used in Vietnamese as a given name.

In Aymara, Indonesian/Malaysian, Turkish, Quechua and the romanization of Japanese, ⟨y⟩ is always a palatal consonant, denoting , as in English.

In Malagasy, the letter represents the final variation of .

In Turkmen, represents .

In Washo, lower-case represents a typical wye sound, while upper-case represents a voiceless wye sound, a bit like the consonant in English ''hue''.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, corresponds to the close front rounded vowel, and the related character corresponds to the near-close near-front rounded vowel.

The SI prefix for 10²⁴ is yotta, abbreviated by the letter Y.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

*Y with diacritics: Ý ý Ỳ ỳ Ŷ ŷ Ÿ ÿ Ỹ ỹ Ẏ ẏ Ỵ ỵ ẙ Ỷ ỷ Ȳ ȳ Ɏ ɏ Ƴ ƴ
* and are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
* IPA superscript letters: 𐞠 𐞲 𐞡
* 𝼆 : Small letter turned y with belt is an extension to IPA for disordered speech (extIPA)
* is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system
* ʸ is used for phonetic transcription
*Ỿ ỿ : Y with loop is used by some Welsh medievalists to indicate the schwa sound of

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

*𐤅: Semitic letter Waw, from which the following symbols originally derive
**Υ υ : Greek letter Upsilon, from which Y derives
*** : Coptic letter epsilon/he (not to be confused with the unrelated Greek letter Ε ε called epsilon)
***𐌖 : Old Italic U/V, which is the ancestor of modern Latin V and U
*** : Gothic letter /, which is transliterated as w
***У у : Cyrillic letter U, which derives from Greek upsilon via the digraph omicron-upsilon used to represent the sound /u/
***Ѵ ѵ : Cyrillic letter izhitsa, which derives from Greek upsilon and represents the sounds /i/ or /v/. This letter is archaic in the modern writing systems of the living Slavic languages, but it is still used in the writing system of the Slavic liturgical language Church Slavonic.
***Ү ү : Cyrillic letter Ue (or ''straight U'')
***Ұ ұ : Kazakh Short U

Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

* ¥ : Yen sign
* ⓨ : In Japan, ⓨ is a symbol used for resale price maintenance.

Computing codes

On the standard US/UK keyboard Y is the sixth letter of the top row; On the QWERTZ keyboard used in Central Europe it is replaced there by Z, and is itself positioned at the bottom left.

Other representations

Notes

References

External links

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{{Latin alphabet, Y}

ISO basic Latin letters
Vowel letters