Y

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

See V. In Greek Υψιλον (Ypsilon) was pronounced /u/ (later on /y/, now /i/; see English MYTH and GIFT which both have /I/). The Romans borrowed Y directly from the Greek, because they felt that V no longer adequately represented Greek /y/. The English name of the letter - /waI/ - is of unknown origin. In Spanish, Y is called i griega, in Catalan i grega and in French 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. It is now established both as a vowel and as a consonant. On Wheel of Fortune, the letter Y counts as a consonant.

The letter y was used by Caxton and other printers in mediaeval England to represent the thorn.

Originally, Y was a vowel letter in Greek, representing [u] (later on, front rounded [y], and in Modern Greek, [i]), and it normally has the sound value [y] in German, in Finnish and other Scandinavian languages. The letter Y nicely shows how letters change their function. In Afrikaans, Y denotes the diphthong [EI], probably as a result of mixing lower case i and y. In Dutch, Y appears only in loanwords and is usually pronounced [i]. Italian, too, has Y only in very few loanwords.

Yankee represents the letter Y in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Y is also:

• The symbol for yttrium in the periodic table.
• A Swedish film, Y, made in 1987
• A place name, Y in Alaska and Y in France (municipality in the Somme département)
• A modern board game, played on a triangle-shaped board. see Y (game)
• The usual symbol for the variable represented on the vertical axis (ordinate) in analytic geometry
• The dependent variable in mathematical analysis and theoretical statistics
• A case of mathematical combinator; see Y combinator
• The variable Y for admittance, the inverse (1/Z) of impedance
• Generation Y
• YMCA
• Yoshi, a Nintendo character

Two-letter combinations starting with Y:

• ya yb yc yd ye yf yg yh yi yj yk yl ym yn yo yp yq yr ys yt yu yv yw yx yy yz

Referenced By