Y

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Y or y is the twenty-fifth (number 25) letter in the English alphabet."Y" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "wye", op. cit. Its name in English is "wye" (pronounced )."Y", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "wye", op. cit.

In words like year, yell, and yes, the Y is a consonant (semivowel). In words like cry, fly, and sky, the Y is considered a vowel.

 Where it came from 
Semitic, Phoenician, Greek and Latin

"Y" has appeared as the Semitic letter "waw". This was the first time it appeared in an alphabet. F, U, V, and W also come from the Semitic alphabet. The Greek and Latin alphabets used the Phoenician form of this early alphabet. There are similarities to the old English letter yogh (Ȝȝ). The table shows where the letter "y" came from.

+Where the English letter "Y" came from Phoenician  Greek  Latin  English (approximate times of changes) Old  Middle  Now 75px  75px  75x →  U → 75x/U/UU → 75x/U/75x 75x →  75x (vowel /y/) →  75x (vowel /i/) →  75x (vowels) 75px 100px  C → G  →  Ȝ →  G → consonantal 75x /j/ →   75x (consonant)  Þ → 75x /th/ -

 Meanings for Y 
 In chemistry, Y is the symbol for yttrium.
 In mathematics, y is another unknown variable, used as a second unknown variable ("x" is used as the first unknown variable)

References

Category:Vowel letters