Y

Y, ory, is the twenty-fifth and penultimateletterof theLatin alphabet, used in themodern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh if includingW)vowel letterof the English alphabet.Its name in English iswye(pronounced/ˈwaɪ/), pluralwyes.
Inthe English writing system, it mostly represents avoweland seldom aconsonant, and in otherorthographiesit may represent a vowel or a consonant.
In Latin, Y was namedI graeca("Greek I"), since the classical Greek sound/y/, similar to modern Germanüor Frenchu, 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 gregoin Galician,i gregain Catalan,i grecin French and Romanian, andi grecain Italian – all meaning "Greek I". The namesigrekin Polish andi gờ-rétin 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 digraphIJ. Hence, bothGriekse ijandi-grecare used, as well asypsilon. In Spanish, Y is also calledi griega; however, in the twentieth century, the shorter nameyewas proposed and was officially recognized as its name in 2010 by theReal 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 calledYpsilonin German,ypsilonin Dutch, andufsiloniin Icelandic. Both names are used in Italian,ipsilonori greca; likewise in Portuguese,ípsilonori grego.In Faroese, the letter is simply calledseinna i("later i") because of its later place in the alphabet. France has a commune calledY, pronounced/i/, whose inhabitants go by the demonymupsilonienne/upsilonienin feminine and masculine form respectively.
The oldest direct ancestor of the letter Y was theSemiticletterwaw(pronounced as[w]), from which also comeF,U,V, andW. SeeFfor details. The Greek and Latin alphabets developed from thePhoenicianform of this early alphabet.
The form of the modern letter Y is derived from the Greek letterupsilon. 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 theAtticdialect of Greek, which had the non-Latin vowel sound/y/(as found in modern Frenchcru(raw) or Germangrün(green)) in words that had been pronounced with/u/in earlier Greek.
Because[y]was not a native sound of Latin, Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing it, and it was usually pronounced/i/.Some Latin words ofItalicorigin also came to be spelled with 'y': Latinsilva('forest') was commonly spelledsylva, in analogy with the Greek cognate and synonymὕλη.
The letter Y was used to represent the sound/y/inOld English, so Latin⟨u⟩,⟨y⟩and⟨i⟩were all used to represent distinct vowel sounds. But, by the time ofMiddle English,/y/had lost itsroundednessand became identical to⟨i⟩(/iː/and/ɪ/). Therefore, many words that originally had⟨i⟩were spelled with⟨y⟩, and vice versa.
In Modern English,⟨y⟩can represent the same vowel sounds as the letter⟨i⟩. The use of⟨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; comparecities, where S is final), and in place of I before the ending-ing(dy-ing,ty-ing).
As a consonant in English,⟨y⟩normally represents apalatal approximant,/j/(year,yore). In this usage, the letter Y has replaced theMiddle Englishletteryogh(Ȝȝ), which developed from the letterG, ultimately from Semiticgimel. Yogh could also represent other sounds, such as/ɣ/, which came to be writtenghin Middle English.
When printing was introduced to Great Britain,Caxtonand other English printers used Y in place of Þ (thorn: Modern Englishth), which did not exist in continentaltypefaces. From this convention comes the spelling oftheasyein the mock archaismYe Olde Shoppe. But, in spite of the spelling, pronunciation was the same as for modernthe(stressed/ðiː/, unstressed/ðə/). Pronouncing the articleyeasyee(/jiː/) is purely a modernspelling pronunciation.
In some of theNordic languages,⟨y⟩is used to represent the sound/y/. The distinction between/y/and/i/has been lost inIcelandicandFaroese, making the distinction purely orthographic and historical. A similar merger of/y/into/i/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. The distinction is retained inDanish,Norwegian, andSwedish.
In theWest Slavic languages,⟨y⟩was adopted as a sign for the close central unrounded vowel/ɨ/; later,/ɨ/merged with/i/in Czech and Slovak, whereas Polish retains it with the pronunciation[ɘ]. Similarly, inMiddle Welsh,⟨y⟩came to be used to designate the vowels/ɨ/and/ɘ/in a way predictable from the position  of the vowel in the word. Since then,/ɨ/has merged with/i/in Southern Welsh dialects, but/ɘ/is retained.
As/j/:
As/aɪ/:
As/i/:
As non-syllabic[ɪ̯](part of thediphthongs/eɪ/,/ɔɪ/):
As/ɪ/:
Other:
InEnglishmorphology,-yis anadjectivalsuffix.
Y is theninth least frequently used letterin the English language (afterP,B,V,K,J,X,Q, andZ), with a frequency of about 2% in words.
⟨y⟩represents the sounds/y/or/ʏ/(sometimes long) in theScandinavian languages. InDanishandSwedish, its use as a semivowel is limited toloanwords, whereas inNorwegian, it appears as a semivowel in native words such ashøyre/²hœʏ̯.rə/.
InDutchandGerman,⟨y⟩appears only inloanwordsandproper name:
A⟨y⟩that derives from the⟨ij⟩ligature occurs in theAfrikaans language, a descendant of Dutch, and inAlemannic Germannames. In Afrikaans, it denotes the diphthong[əi]. In Alemannic German names, it denotes long/iː/, for instance inSchnyder[ˈʃniːdər]orSchwyz[ˈʃʋiːts]– the cognate non-Alemannic German namesSchneider[ˈʃnaɪdər]orSchweiz[ʃʋaɪts]have the diphthong/aɪ/that developed from long/iː/.
InHungarian orthography, y is only used in the digraphs "gy", "ly", "ny", "ty", in some surnames (e.g.Bátory), and in foreign words.
InIcelandic writing system, due to the loss of the Old Norse rounding of the vowel/y/, the letters⟨y⟩and⟨ý⟩are now pronounced identically to the letters⟨i⟩and⟨í⟩, namely as/ɪ/and/i/respectively. The difference in spelling is thus purely etymological. InFaroese, too, the contrast has been lost, and⟨y⟩is always pronounced/i/, whereas the accented versions⟨ý⟩and⟨í⟩designate the same diphthong/ʊi/(shortened to/u/in some environments). In both languages, it can also form part of diphthongs such as⟨ey⟩(in both languages), pronounced/ei/, and⟨oy⟩, pronounced/ɔi/(Faroese only).
InFrench orthography,⟨y⟩is pronounced as[i]when a vowel (as in the wordscycle,y) and as[j]as a consonant (as inyeux,voyez). It alternates orthographically with⟨i⟩in the conjugations of some verbs, indicating a[j]sound. In most cases when⟨y⟩follows a vowel, it modifies the pronunciation of the vowel:⟨ay⟩[ɛ],⟨oy⟩[wa],⟨uy⟩[ɥi]. The letter⟨y⟩has double function (modifying the vowel as well as being pronounced as[j]or[i]) in the wordspayer,balayer,moyen,essuyer,pays, etc., but in some words it has only a single function:[j]inbayer,mayonnaise,coyote; modifying the vowel at the end of proper names likeChardonnayandFourcroy. In French,⟨y⟩can have adiaeresis(tréma) as inMoÿ-de-l'Aisne.
InSpanish,⟨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 flechaswas a symbol sharing the initials ofIsabella I of Castille(Ysabel) andFerdinand II of Aragon. This spelling was reformed by theRoyal Spanish Academyand currently is only found in proper names spelled archaically, such asYbarraorCYII, the symbol of theCanal de Isabel II. Appearing alone as a word, the letter⟨y⟩is agrammatical conjunctionwith the meaning "and" inSpanishand is pronounced/i/. As a consonant,⟨y⟩represents[ʝ]in Spanish. The letter is calledi/y griega, literally meaning "Greek I", after the Greek letterypsilon, orye.
InPortuguese,⟨y⟩(calledípsiloninBrazil, and eitherípsilonori gregoinPortugal) was, together with⟨k⟩and⟨w⟩, recently reintroduced as the 25th letter, and 19th consonant, of thePortuguese alphabet, in consequence of thePortuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990. It is mostly used in loanwords from English,Japaneseand Spanish. Loanwords in general, primarilygallicismsin both varieties, are more common inBrazilian Portuguesethan inEuropean Portuguese. It was always common for Brazilians to stylizeTupi-influenced names of their children with the letter (which is present in most Romanizations ofOld Tupi) e.g. Guaracy, Jandyra, Mayara – though placenames and loanwords derived from indigenous origins had the letter substituted for⟨i⟩over time e.g.NictheroybecameNiterói. Usual pronunciations are/i/,[j],[ɪ]and/ɨ/(the two latter ones are inexistent in European and Brazilian Portuguese varieties respectively, being both substituted by/i/in other dialects). The letters⟨i⟩and⟨y⟩are regarded as phonemically not dissimilar, though the first corresponds to a vowel and the latter to a consonant, and both can correspond to asemivoweldepending on its place in a word.
Italian, too, has⟨y⟩(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.
InGuaraní, it represents the vowel[ɨ].
InPolish, it represents the vowel[ɘ](or, according to some descriptions,[ɨ̞]), which is clearly different from[i], e.g.my(we) andmi(me). No native Polish word begins with⟨y⟩; very few foreign words keep⟨y⟩at the beginning, e.g.yeti(pronounced[ˈjɛtʲi]).
InCzechandSlovak, the distinction between the vowels expressed by⟨y⟩and⟨i⟩, as well as by⟨ý⟩and⟨í⟩has been lost (similarly to Icelandic and Faroese), but the consonantsd, t, n(alsolin Slovak) before orthographic (and historical)⟨y⟩are not palatalized, whereas they are before⟨i⟩. Therefore,⟨y⟩is calledtvrdé y(hard y), while⟨i⟩isměkké i(soft i).⟨ý⟩can never begin any word, while⟨y⟩can never begin a native word.
InWelsh, it is usually pronounced[ə]in non-final syllables and[ɨ]or[i](depending on the accent) in final syllables.
In theStandard Written Formof theCornish Language, it represents the[ɪ]and[ɪː]ofRevived Middle Cornishand the[ɪ]and[iː]ofRevived Late Cornish. It can also representTudorand Revived Late Cornish[ɛ]and[eː]and consequently be replaced in writing with⟨e⟩. It is also used in forming a number ofdiphthongs. As a consonant it represents[j].
InDanish,Norwegian,Swedish,Finnish,KarelianandAlbanian,⟨y⟩is always pronounced[y].
InEstonian,⟨y⟩is used in foreign proper names and is pronounced as in the source language. It is also unofficially used as a substitute for⟨ü⟩and is pronounced the same as inFinnish.
InLithuanian,⟨y⟩is the 15th letter (following⟨į⟩and preceding⟨j⟩in the alphabet) and is a vowel. It is calledthe long iand is pronounced/iː/, like in Englishsee.
When used as a vowel inVietnamese, the letter⟨y⟩represents the sound/i/; when it is a monophthong, it is functionally equivalent to the Vietnamese letter⟨i⟩. There have been efforts to replace all such uses with⟨y⟩altogether, but they have been largely unsuccessful. As a consonant, it represents thepalatal approximant. The capital letter⟨Y⟩is also used in Vietnamese as agiven name.
InAymara,Indonesian/Malaysian,Turkish,Quechuaand theromanization of Japanese, ⟨y⟩ is always apalatal consonant, denoting[j], as in English.
InMalagasy, the letter⟨y⟩represents the final variation of/ɨ/.
InTurkmen,⟨y⟩represents[ɯ].
InWasho, lower-case⟨y⟩represents a typical wye sound, while upper-case⟨Y⟩represents avoicelesswye sound, a bit like the consonant in Englishhue.
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨y⟩ corresponds to theclose front rounded vowel, and the related character ⟨ʏ⟩ corresponds to thenear-close near-front rounded vowel.