The Latin alphabet | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | ||
Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj |
Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp |
Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | |
Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz |
Y, or Ÿ, is the twenty-fifth (number 25) letter in the English alphabet.[1] Its name in English is "wye" (pronounced /ˈwaɪ/).[2]
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.
"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.
Phoenician | Greek | Latin | English (approximate times of changes) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Old | Middle | Now | |||
→ | U → | /U/UU → | /U/ | ||
→ | (vowel /y/) → | (vowel /i/) → | (vowels) | ||
C → | |||||
G → | Ȝ → | G → | |||
consonantal /j/ → | (consonant) | ||||
Þ → | /th/ | - |