Y

Y is the twenty-fifth letter of the Latin alphabet.

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See V. In Ancient Greek Υψιλον (Ypsilon) was pronounced IPA , later on , now . The Romans borrowed Y directly from the Greek, because they felt that V no longer adequately represented Greek .

Related Topics:
V - Ancient Greek - IPA

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The letter Y was used in Old English, as in Latin, with the value ; however, some think that this use was an independent invention in England created by stacking a V and an I, unrelated to the Latin use of the letter.

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By Middle English, had lost its roundedness and become , and Y came to be used with the same values as I, and and . Those dialects that retained spelled it with U, under French influence.

Related Topics:
Middle English - Roundedness

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The Modern English use of Y is a direct continuation of this Middle English use.

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Thus the words myth and gift ,

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which originally contained high front rounded vowels, both have {{IPA|}} nowadays.

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The English name of the letter, pronounced {{IPA|}}, is of uncertain origin.

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It is possible that a former name broke in Old English to , which would regularly yield Modern English .

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With the introduction of printing, the letter Y was used by Caxton and other printers in England to represent the letter thorn (Þ, þ) which was lacking from continental typefaces, resulting in the use of ye for the word the.

Related Topics:
Caxton - England - Letter thorn - Typeface

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In Spanish, Y is called i griega, in Catalan i grega, in Polish igrek and in French and Dutch i grec (all mean "Greek i"); in most other European languages the Greek name is still used. The letter Y was originally established as a vowel. In the standard English language, the letter Y is traditionally regarded as a consonant, but as a survey of almost any English text, including this one, will show, Y more commonly functions as a vowel.

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Originally, Y was a vowel letter in Greek, representing and later on, front rounded , becoming in Modern Greek. It has the sound value in German, in Finnish and the Scandinavian languages, where it can never be a consonant. In contrast, in the Latin transcription of Nenets (Nyenec) the letter "y" palatalizes the preceding consonant. The letter Y nicely shows how letters change their function. In Afrikaans, Y denotes the diphthong , probably as a result of mixing lower case i and y or may derive from the IJ ligature. In Dutch, Y appears only in loanwords and names and is usually pronounced . It is often left out of the Dutch alphabet and replaced with the "letter IJ". Italian, too, has Y only in very few loanwords.

Related Topics:
Greek - German - Finnish - Scandinavian language - Nenets - Palatalizes - Afrikaans - Dutch - Loanword - Letter IJ - Italian

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In Castilian language, Y was used as a word-initial form of I that was more visible. German has used J in a similar way. Hence el Yugo y las Flechas was a symbol sharing the initials of Isabella I of Castile (Ysabel) and Ferdinand II of Aragon. This spelling was reformed by the Royal Spanish Academy and currently is only found in proper names spelt archaicly, such as Ybarra or CYII, the symbol of the Canal de Isabel II. X is also still used in Spanish with a different sound in some archaisms. In Spanish names, an y (meaning "and") can separate the father surname from the mother surname as in "Santiago Ramón y Cajal". Catalan names use i for this.

Related Topics:
Castilian language - J - El Yugo y las Flechas - Isabella I of Castile - Ferdinand II of Aragon - Royal Spanish Academy - Ybarra - CYII - Canal de Isabel II - X - Spanish name - Santiago Ramón y Cajal

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Yankee represents the letter Y in the NATO phonetic alphabet. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, corresponds to the close front rounded vowel, and corresponds to the near-close near-front rounded vowel.

Related Topics:
NATO phonetic alphabet - International Phonetic Alphabet - Close front rounded vowel - Near-close near-front rounded vowel

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