«Y» является предпоследней буквой английского алфавита.
Слушать произношение буквы Y
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Она входит в группу гласных. Произносится с опорой на следующую транскрипцию: [ wai ] (по-русски – [ уай ]).
Изначально была заимствована из греческого (еще в I веке до н.э.), до наступления Средневековья использовалась только в составе греческих заимствований в латинском. Далее она была включена в алфавиты большинства западноевропейских языков.
Произносится следующим образом:
- как [ aɪ ] в открытом ударном слоге («my»), в закрытом слоге («cycle»), в суффиксе «y» у глаголов («satisfy»);
- как [ ɪ ] в закрытом ударном слоге («myth»), в безударном положении («ready»);
- в качестве [ aɪə ] перед буквой «r» в составе открытого ударного слога («tyre»).
Вернуться ко всем буквам английского алфавита
Произношение английских букв – это далеко не самая сложная фонетическая задача, которая есть в языке. Тем не менее, правильное произношение всех без исключения элементов алфавита английского языка является неотъемлемым навыком, которым должен обладать любой, кто только начинает процесс изучения языка либо является продвинутым знатоком. Особенности английских букв не очень сложные, и единожды выучив правила их произношения, проблем с ними больше не возникнет. Поэтому важно раз и навсегда запомнить, как называются English letters по-русски и какое звучание им присуще.
Общие принципы произношения английских букв
Английские буквы, по крайне мере, их большинство, читаются совершенно не так, как их хочется произнести человеку, не имеющего никаких знаний иностранного языка. Дело в том, что в английском языке существуют особые фонетические приемы того, как читать English letters и какие именно звуки произносятся при перечислении всех без исключения согласных и гласных. Всего насчитывается 26 английских букв, и название большинства из них будет не таким, как может показаться на первый взгляд. Поэтому необходимо рассмотреть то, как правильно произносить все гласные и согласные letters (первых насчитывается 6, вторых – 20) и определить, как сделать так, чтобы проблем с алфавитом не возникало на протяжении всего периода обучения языку, а не только на начальном этапе. Это помогут отобразить буквы на английском языке с произношением на русском, то есть полноценная русская транскрипция для максимально удобства и запоминания. Это наверняка поможет выучить название всех letters и будет хорошим подспорьем в процессе обучения.
Названия и произношение английских букв
Далее будут представлены все без исключения English letters с произношением того, как называется каждая из них:
- A читается как «эй»;
- B будет произноситься «би»;
- C правильно произносится как «си»;
- D должна звучать как «ди»;
- E гласная E имеет произношение «и»;
- F звучит как «эф»;
- G произносится не иначе как «джи»;
- H по-русски эйч английская буква H;
- I имеет произношение «ай»;
- J не стоит путать с G; она звучит как «джей»;
- K произносится «кей»;
- L должна звучать как «эл»;
- далее идет M, которая произносится «эм»;
- после нее следует N, которая слышится как «эн»;
- гласная O должна произноситься как «оу»;
- следом идет P – «пи»;
- английская буква кью – это Q;
- далее идет R, которая обычно звучит нейтрально – «а», но в американском варианте языка очень часто
- произносится как «ар»;
- S звучит как «эс»;
- согласная «ти» – это T;
- гласная U имеет произношение «ю»;
- далее идет V – «ви»;
- одна из самых необычных букв алфавита – W, и произносится она как «дабл-ю»;
- следом идет X – «экс»;
- предпоследняя буква, которая обычно считается гласной – Y («уай», или проще «вай»);
- замыкает алфавит согласная Z – «зет».
Следующая таблица поможет максимально сгруппировать информацию о том, как читаются английские буквы, так как в третьей колонке будет представлена транскрипция русскими буквами:
Все эти особенности чтения English letters должны изучаться с самого начала знакомства с английским алфавитом и языком в целом. Для того чтобы упростить себе задачу того, как выучить все эти нормы произношения, можно использовать известные многим песни, соблюдая определенный ритм и тем самым ускоряя процесс запоминания. Важно лишь понять, что без знания этих фонетических особенностей читать даже простейшие слова будет проблематично.
No doubt you know your ABCs, but do you know how to spell the names of the letters themselves? For example, how would you spell the name of the letter W? In this article, we are going to take a look at how to spell out the different consonants of the alphabet. Why just the consonants? Well, spelling the names of the vowels is unusual, and the spellings vary widely.
We don’t often have a reason to spell out the names of letters. They show up in some words or phrases, like tee-shirt or em-dash. Knowing how to spell out the letters is a good trick to have in your back pocket when playing word games like Scrabble and Words With Friends. Mostly though, the spelled-out names of the consonants are fun trivia any word lover will enjoy.
B – bee
The letter B is spelled just like the insect: b-e-e. The plural is bees, like something you might find in a hive. Before it was bee, the letter B was part of the Phoenician alphabet and was known as beth.
C – cee
The spelling of the letter C might surprise you. It isn’t spelled with an S but a C: c-e-e. The spelling cee might come in handy especially when writing about something “shaped or formed like the letter C,” as in she was curled in a cee, holding her pillow.
D – dee
You might be picking up on a pattern here. Like B and C, the letter D is spelled out with -ee: d-e-e. Like the letter B, dee originally had another name in the Phoenician alphabet: daleth.
F – ef
The letter F is spelled e-f. The spelled out name ef is occasionally used as an abbreviation for much saltier language.
G – gee
With the exception of ef, the letter G is spelled like the other letters we have seen so far: gee. Particularly in American slang, the spelled out name gee is used as an abbreviation for grand, in the sense of “thousand dollars.”
Have you met these two extinct alphabet letters? Take a look!
H – aitch
The letter H has a tricky spelling and pronunciation. It is spelled aitch, but the pronunciation of its name is [ eych ]. The letter comes from Northern Semitic languages and its modern corollary is the Hebrew letter heth.
J – jay
The letter J has a long and complicated history—it began as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing I—but its spelling is relatively straightforward: jay. Like C, the spelling jay can be useful when describing something in the shape of the letter.
K – kay
You may already be familiar with the spelling of the letter K from the expression okay, or OK. Just like in okay, K is typically spelled k-a-y. Okay is a unique Americanism that you can read more about here.
L – el
El is most easily recognizable as the common abbreviation for elevated railroad. However, it is also the spelling for the letter L.
M – em
The spelling of the letter M, em, can be found in the name of the punctuation mark em dash (—). The name of the punctuation mark comes from the fact that it is the width of the letter M when printed.
N – en
Much like the letters em and en themselves, the em-dash and en-dash are often mixed up. The en dash is, you guessed it, the width of the letter N when printed. The en dash (–) is shorter than an em dash (—).
P – pee
The most scatological letter name is pee (P). The use of pee as a verb and noun to refer to urination actually comes from a euphemism for the vulgar piss, using the spelling of the initial letter in piss: P.
Q – cue
The letter Q has the honor of being one of two letters that is not included in the spelling of its own name: cue. The use of cue as a verb or noun to refer to “anything that excites to action” comes from another abbreviation related to the letter itself. In acting scripts, the Latin quandō, meaning “when” was abbreviated q, which later came to be spelled cue.
R – ar
The name of the letter R sounds like something a pirate might say: ar. The letter R was called by the Roman poet Persius littera canina or “the canine letter.” It was so named because pronouncing ar sounds like a dog’s growl.
S – ess
The snake-like S is spelled ess, with two terminal -s‘s. Along with cee and jay, ess can also be used to describe “something shaped like an S,” as in The roads were laid out nested double esses along the riverbank.
T – tee
A letter whose spelling you are more likely to be familiar with is T or tee, because it often appears in spellings of T-shirt (e.g., tee-shirt). The tee shirt is so named because it is a shirt in the shape of a T.
V – vee
Another letter that pops up in fashion is V or vee. You see this most often when describing certain clothing elements, such as a vee neckline or a vee-shaped dart.
W – double-u
The letter W is one of the stranger letters in the alphabet, and so is its spelling. As we noted already, we don’t usually spell vowels out, so we end up with the awkward double-u. The plural spelling is double-ues. Before it was merged into one letter (W), the sound was represented with the the digraph -uu- or double-u.
Why do we have uppercase and lowercase letters?
X – ex
The spelling of the letter X, ex, might seem foreboding. That’s because we often equate it with the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “without.” We also use ex as a verb to mean putting an X over something, literally or metaphorically, as in I exed out the name on the list. The letter X has found use as we explore new ways of describing gender identity and expression, which you can read about here.
Y – wye
The letter Y is spelled wye, like the river in Great Britain. Wye has been adopted into electrical and railroad terminology to describe circuits and track arrangements, respectively, that are in the shape of a Y. Interestingly, the letter Y replaced an Old English letter called thorn.
Z – zee
In American English, the letter Z is spelled and pronounced zee, patterned off of other consonants like dee and gee. However, in British English, the letter Z is named zed. Zed comes from the Middle French zede, itself from the ancient Greek zêta.
No doubt you know your ABCs, but do you know how to spell the names of the letters themselves? For example, how would you spell the name of the letter W? In this article, we are going to take a look at how to spell out the different consonants of the alphabet. Why just the consonants? Well, spelling the names of the vowels is unusual, and the spellings vary widely.
We don’t often have a reason to spell out the names of letters. They show up in some words or phrases, like tee-shirt or em-dash. Knowing how to spell out the letters is a good trick to have in your back pocket when playing word games like Scrabble and Words With Friends. Mostly though, the spelled-out names of the consonants are fun trivia any word lover will enjoy.
B – bee
The letter B is spelled just like the insect: b-e-e. The plural is bees, like something you might find in a hive. Before it was bee, the letter B was part of the Phoenician alphabet and was known as beth.
C – cee
The spelling of the letter C might surprise you. It isn’t spelled with an S but a C: c-e-e. The spelling cee might come in handy especially when writing about something “shaped or formed like the letter C,” as in she was curled in a cee, holding her pillow.
D – dee
You might be picking up on a pattern here. Like B and C, the letter D is spelled out with -ee: d-e-e. Like the letter B, dee originally had another name in the Phoenician alphabet: daleth.
F – ef
The letter F is spelled e-f. The spelled out name ef is occasionally used as an abbreviation for much saltier language.
G – gee
With the exception of ef, the letter G is spelled like the other letters we have seen so far: gee. Particularly in American slang, the spelled out name gee is used as an abbreviation for grand, in the sense of “thousand dollars.”
Have you met these two extinct alphabet letters? Take a look!
H – aitch
The letter H has a tricky spelling and pronunciation. It is spelled aitch, but the pronunciation of its name is [ eych ]. The letter comes from Northern Semitic languages and its modern corollary is the Hebrew letter heth.
J – jay
The letter J has a long and complicated history—it began as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing I—but its spelling is relatively straightforward: jay. Like C, the spelling jay can be useful when describing something in the shape of the letter.
K – kay
You may already be familiar with the spelling of the letter K from the expression okay, or OK. Just like in okay, K is typically spelled k-a-y. Okay is a unique Americanism that you can read more about here.
L – el
El is most easily recognizable as the common abbreviation for elevated railroad. However, it is also the spelling for the letter L.
M – em
The spelling of the letter M, em, can be found in the name of the punctuation mark em dash (—). The name of the punctuation mark comes from the fact that it is the width of the letter M when printed.
N – en
Much like the letters em and en themselves, the em-dash and en-dash are often mixed up. The en dash is, you guessed it, the width of the letter N when printed. The en dash (–) is shorter than an em dash (—).
P – pee
The most scatological letter name is pee (P). The use of pee as a verb and noun to refer to urination actually comes from a euphemism for the vulgar piss, using the spelling of the initial letter in piss: P.
Q – cue
The letter Q has the honor of being one of two letters that is not included in the spelling of its own name: cue. The use of cue as a verb or noun to refer to “anything that excites to action” comes from another abbreviation related to the letter itself. In acting scripts, the Latin quandō, meaning “when” was abbreviated q, which later came to be spelled cue.
R – ar
The name of the letter R sounds like something a pirate might say: ar. The letter R was called by the Roman poet Persius littera canina or “the canine letter.” It was so named because pronouncing ar sounds like a dog’s growl.
S – ess
The snake-like S is spelled ess, with two terminal -s‘s. Along with cee and jay, ess can also be used to describe “something shaped like an S,” as in The roads were laid out nested double esses along the riverbank.
T – tee
A letter whose spelling you are more likely to be familiar with is T or tee, because it often appears in spellings of T-shirt (e.g., tee-shirt). The tee shirt is so named because it is a shirt in the shape of a T.
V – vee
Another letter that pops up in fashion is V or vee. You see this most often when describing certain clothing elements, such as a vee neckline or a vee-shaped dart.
W – double-u
The letter W is one of the stranger letters in the alphabet, and so is its spelling. As we noted already, we don’t usually spell vowels out, so we end up with the awkward double-u. The plural spelling is double-ues. Before it was merged into one letter (W), the sound was represented with the the digraph -uu- or double-u.
Why do we have uppercase and lowercase letters?
X – ex
The spelling of the letter X, ex, might seem foreboding. That’s because we often equate it with the prefix ex-, meaning “out of” or “without.” We also use ex as a verb to mean putting an X over something, literally or metaphorically, as in I exed out the name on the list. The letter X has found use as we explore new ways of describing gender identity and expression, which you can read about here.
Y – wye
The letter Y is spelled wye, like the river in Great Britain. Wye has been adopted into electrical and railroad terminology to describe circuits and track arrangements, respectively, that are in the shape of a Y. Interestingly, the letter Y replaced an Old English letter called thorn.
Z – zee
In American English, the letter Z is spelled and pronounced zee, patterned off of other consonants like dee and gee. However, in British English, the letter Z is named zed. Zed comes from the Middle French zede, itself from the ancient Greek zêta.
Самое первое с чего стоит начинать изучение языка это английский алфавит (English Alphabet). Вам не обязательно учить его в порядке следования букв, как на уроках в школе. Но знать, как правильно читаются и пишутся буквы английского языка просто необходимо.
Современные реалии таковы, что с буквами английского алфавита мы сталкиваемся каждый день. Читать английские слова сегодня, может даже ребенок, но делают это многие люди, как правило, с ошибками в произношении.
С вами наверное случалась такая ситуация, когда вы по телефону, пытались продиктовать какое то иностранное слово или ваш личный E-mail. И в ход шли «буква S — как знак доллара» или «буква i которая пишется как палочка с точкой наверху».
Специально создание нами интерактивные упражнения и таблицы помогут узнать, как правильно произносятся буквы английского алфавита и ускорить ваше обучение в несколько раз, если вы будете уделять им всего лишь по несколько минут в день, и все это совершенно бесплатно.
Алфавит с транскрипцией и произношением
Упражнение № 1
Ниже представлена интерактивная таблица английского алфавита транскрипцией и переводом на русский язык. В таблице вы можете скрывать необходимые колонки, а после клика на строки они вновь появятся.
Вы также можете посмотреть печатный и письменный вариант английского алфавита и увидеть, как правильно пишутся английская буквы.
Для того чтобы услышать правильное произношение нужной вам буквы алфавита, просто нажмите на неё и прослушайте аудио произношение
Этот способ изучения поможет вам быстрее запомнить буквы английского алфавита, но стоит заметить, что перевод произношения на русский язык, является лишь условным.
Написание английских букв
Скрыть колонки для изучения
№ | буквы алфавита | английская транскипция | русское произношение |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
A a |
[ei] |
эй |
2 |
B b |
[bi:] |
би |
3 |
C c |
[si:] |
си |
4 |
D d |
[di:] |
ди |
5 |
E e |
[i:] |
и |
6 |
F f |
[ef] |
эф |
7 |
G g |
[dʒi:] |
джи |
8 |
H h |
[eitʃ] |
эйч |
9 |
I i |
[ai] |
ай |
10 |
J j |
[dʒei] |
джей |
11 |
K k |
[kei] |
кей |
12 |
L l |
[el] |
эл |
13 |
M m |
[em] |
эм |
14 |
N n |
[en] |
эн |
15 |
O o |
[ou] |
оу |
16 |
P p |
[pi:] |
пи |
17 |
Q q |
[kju:] |
кью |
18 |
R r |
[a:r] |
а: или ар |
19 |
S s |
[es] |
эс |
20 |
T t |
[ti:] |
ти |
21 |
U u |
[ju:] |
ю |
22 |
V v |
[vi:] |
ви |
23 |
W w |
[`dʌblju:] |
дабл-ю |
24 |
X x |
[eks] |
экс |
25 |
Y y |
[wai] |
вай |
26 |
Z z |
[zed] |
зи или зед |
This article is about the letter of the Latin alphabet. For other uses, see Y (disambiguation).
Y | |
---|---|
Y y | |
(See below) | |
Usage | |
Writing system | Latin script |
Type | Alphabetic and Logographic |
Language of origin | Latin language |
Phonetic usage | [y] [ʏ] [ɨ] [j] [i] [iː] [ɪ] [ɘ] [ə] [ɯ] [ɛː] [ɥ] [ɣ̟] [ɛi] [ʔ] [ʝ] [ɟ͡ʝ] [d͡ʒ] [ʒ] [ʃ] |
Unicode codepoint | U+0059, U+0079 |
Alphabetical position | 25 |
History | |
Development |
|
Time period | 54 to present |
Sisters | • U • V • W • Ỿ • ¥ • Ꮙ • Ꮍ • Ꭹ F Ѵ У Ў Ұ Ү ו و ܘ וּ וֹ ࠅ 𐎆 𐡅 ወ વ ૂ ુ उ |
Variations | (See below) |
Other | |
Other letters commonly used with | y(x), ly, ny |
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. |
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth (or seventh if including W) vowel letter of the English alphabet.[1] In the English writing system, it mostly represents a vowel and seldom a consonant, and in other orthographies it may represent a vowel or a consonant. Its name in English is wye[2] (pronounced ), plural wyes.[3]
Name
In Latin, Y was named I graeca («Greek I»), since the classical Greek sound /y/, similar to modern German ü or French u, 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 grego in Galician, i grega in Catalan, i grec in French and Romanian, i greca in Italian – all meaning «Greek I». The names igrek in Polish and i gờ-rét in 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 digraph IJ. Hence, both Griekse ij and i-grec are used, as well as ypsilon. In Spanish, Y is also called i griega; however, in the twentieth century, the shorter name ye was proposed and was officially recognized as its name in 2010 by the Real Academia Española, although its original name is still accepted.[4]
The original Greek name υ ψιλόν (upsilon) has also been adapted into several modern languages. For example, it is called Ypsilon in German, ypsilon in Dutch, ufsilon i in Icelandic. Both names are used in Italian, ipsilon or i greca; likewise in Portuguese, ípsilon or i grego.[5] In Faroese, the letter is simply called seinna i («later i») because of its later place in the alphabet.
Old English borrowed Latin Y to write the native Old English sound /y/ (previously written with the rune yr ᚣ). The name of the letter may be related to ‘ui’ (or ‘vi’) in various medieval languages;[citation needed] in Middle English it was ‘wi’ /wiː/,[citation needed] which through the Great Vowel Shift became the Modern English ‘wy’ /waɪ/.
History
Phoenician | Greek | Latin | English (approximate times of changes) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Old | Middle | Modern | |||
V → | U → | V/U/UU → | V/U/W | ||
Y → | Y (vowel /y/) → | Y (vowel /i/) → | Y (vowels) | ||
C → | |||||
G → | Ᵹ (consonantal /ɡ/, /j/ or /ɣ/) → | Ȝ (consonantal /ɡ/, /j/ or /ɣ/) → | Y | ||
Y (consonant) |
An early Semitic version of the letter waw
The later, Phoenician version of waw
The oldest direct ancestor of English letter Y was the Semitic letter waw (pronounced as [w]), from which also come F, U, V, and W. See F for details. The Greek and Latin alphabets developed from the Phoenician form of this early alphabet.
Since Late Middle English, the letter Y came to be used in a number of words where earlier Middle English spelling contained the letter yogh (Ȝȝ), which developed from the letter G, ultimately from Semitic gimel – as described below (As a side note — Modern Greek lowercase gamma ⟨γ⟩ is somewhat similarly shaped to the lowercase letter ⟨y⟩).
Vowel
The form of the modern letter Y is derived from the Greek letter upsilon. 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 the prestigious Attic dialect of Greek, which had the non-Latin vowel sound /y/ (as found in modern French cru (raw), or German grün (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/.[citation needed] Some Latin words of Italic origin also came to be spelled with ‘y’: Latin silva (‘forest’) was commonly spelled sylva, in analogy with the Greek cognate and synonym ὕλη.[6]
The letter Y was used to represent the sound /y/ in the writing systems of some other languages that adopted the Latin alphabet. In Old English and Old Norse, there was a native /y/ sound, and so Latin U, Y and I were all used to represent distinct vowel sounds. But, by the time of Middle English, /y/ had lost its roundedness and became identical to I (/iː/ and /ɪ/). Therefore, many words that originally had I were spelled with Y, and vice versa. The distinction between /y/ and /i/ was also lost in later Icelandic and Faroese, making the distinction purely orthographic and historical, but not in the mainland Scandinavian languages, where the distinction is retained. It may be observed that 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. In the West Slavic languages, Y was adapted 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, in Middle 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.
In Modern English, Y can represent the same vowel sounds as the letter I. The use of the letter 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; compare cities, where S is final), and in place of I before the ending -ing (dy-ing, justify-ing).
Consonant
As a consonant in English, Y normally represents a palatal approximant, /j/ (year, yore). In this usage, the letter Y has replaced the Middle English letter yogh (Ȝȝ), which could represent /j/. (Yogh could also represent other sounds, such as /ɣ/, which came to be written gh in Middle English.)
Confusion in writing with the letter thorn
When printing was introduced to Great Britain, Caxton and other English printers used Y in place of Þ (thorn: Modern English th), which did not exist in continental typefaces. From this convention comes the spelling of the as ye in the mock archaism Ye Olde Shoppe. But, in spite of the spelling, pronunciation was the same as for modern the (stressed /ðiː/, unstressed /ðə/). Pronouncing the article ye as yee (/jiː/) is purely a modern spelling pronunciation.[7]
Pronunciation and use
Language | Dialect(s) | Pronunciation (IPA) | Environment | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | /əi/ | |||
Albanian | /y/ | |||
Azerbaijani | /j/ | |||
Cornish | /i/ | Usually | ||
/ɪ/ | Before multiple consonants | |||
/j/ | Before vowels | |||
Czech | /i/ | |||
Danish | /ʏ/ | Before multiple consonants | ||
/y/ | Usually | |||
Dutch | /ɛi/ | Archaic spelling of <ij> | ||
English | /aɪ/ | Usually | ||
/j/ | Before vowels | |||
/i/ | Unstressed at the end after a consonant or «E» | |||
/ɪ/ | Unstressed; stressed before a consonant | |||
Faroese | /ɪ/ | Before two consonants | ||
/ʊi/ | Usually | |||
Finnish | /y/ | |||
German | Alemannic | /iː/ | ||
Standard | /j/ | In some words | ||
/ʏ/ | Before two consonants | |||
/y/ | Usually | |||
Guaraní | /ɨ/ | |||
Icelandic | /iː/ | |||
/ɪ/ | ||||
Khasi | /ʔ/ | before vowels | ||
Lithuanian | /iː/ | |||
Malagasy | /ɨ/ | |||
Manx | /ə/ | |||
Norwegian | /ʏ/ | Before multiple consonants | ||
/y/ | Usually | |||
Polish | /ɨ/ | |||
Slovak | /i/ | |||
Spanish | /i/ | As a standalone word, after vowels in diphthongs, in archaic spelling of proper names | ||
/ɟʝ/ | Before vowels, word-initially | |||
/ʝ/ | Before vowels | |||
Swedish | /ʏ/ | Before multiple consonants | ||
/y/ | Usually | |||
Turkish | /j/ | |||
Turkmen | /ɯ/ | |||
Uzbek | /j/ | |||
Vietnamese | /i/ | |||
Welsh | Northern | /ɨ̞/, /ɨː/, /ə/ | ||
Southern | /ɪ/, /iː/, /ə/, /əː/ |
English
As :
- at the beginning of a word as in yes
- at the beginning of a syllable before a vowel as in beyond, lawyer, canyon
As :
- under stress in an open syllable as in my, type, rye, lying, pyre, tyre, typhoon
- in a stressed open syllable as in hyphen, cycle, cylon
- in a pretonic open syllable as in hypothesis, psychology
- word-finally after a consonant, as in ally, unify
As :
- without stress at the end of multi-syllable word, as in happy, baby, lucky, accuracy
- used as a diphthong in combination with e at the end of some words, as in money, key, valley
As non-syllabic [ɪ̯]:
- in diphthongs at the end of words, as in play, grey, boy
As :
- in a closed syllable without stress and with stress as in myth, system, gymnastics
- in a closed syllable under stress as in typical, lyric
- in an open syllable without stress as in physique, oxygen
Other:
- combining with ⟨r⟩ as under stress (like ⟨i⟩ in bird), as in myrtle, myrrh
- as (schwa) in words like martyr
In English morphology, -y is an adjectival suffix.
Y is the ninth least frequently used letter in the English language (after P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, and Z), with a frequency of about 2% in words.
Other languages
Pronunciation of written ⟨y⟩ in European languages (Actual pronunciation may vary)
⟨y⟩ represents the sounds /y/ or /ʏ/ (sometimes long) in the Scandinavian languages. It can never be a consonant (except for loanwords).
In Dutch and German, ⟨y⟩ appears only in loanwords and proper names.
In Dutch, it usually represents /i/. It may sometimes be left out of the Dutch alphabet and replaced with the ⟨ij⟩ digraph. In addition, ⟨y⟩ and ⟨ÿ⟩ are occasionally used instead of Dutch ⟨IJ⟩ and ⟨ij⟩, albeit very rarely.
In German orthography, the pronunciation /yː/ has taken hold since the 19th century in classical loanwords – for instance in words like typisch /ˈtyːpɪʃ/ ‘typical’, Hyäne, Hysterie, mysteriös, Syndrom, System, Typ. It is also used for the sound /j/ in loanwords, such as Yacht (variation spelling: Jacht), Yak, Yeti; however, e.g. yo-yo is spelled «Jo-Jo» in German, and yoghurt/yogurt/yoghourt «Jog(h)urt» [mostly spelled with h[8]]). The letter ⟨y⟩ is also used in many geographical names, e.g. Bayern Bavaria, Ägypten Egypt, Libyen Libya, Paraguay, Syrien Syria, Uruguay, Zypern Cyprus (but: Jemen Yemen, Jugoslawien Yugoslavia). Especially in German names, the pronunciations /iː/ or /ɪ/ occur as well – for instance in the name Meyer, where it serves as a variant of ⟨i⟩, cf. Meier, another common spelling of the name. In German the y is preserved in the plural form of some loanwords such as Babys babies and Partys parties, celebrations.
A ⟨y⟩ that derives from the ⟨ij⟩ ligature occurs in the Afrikaans language, a descendant of Dutch, and in Alemannic German names. In Afrikaans, it denotes the diphthong [əi]. In Alemannic German names, it denotes long /iː/, for instance in Schnyder [ˈʃniːdər] or Schwyz [ˈʃʋiːts] – the cognate non-Alemannic German names Schneider [ˈʃnaɪdər] or Schweiz [ʃʋaɪts] have the diphthong /aɪ/ that developed from long /iː/.
In Hungarian orthography, y is only used in the digraphs «gy,» «ly,» «ny,» «ty,» in some surnames (e. g. Bátory), and in foreign words.
In Icelandic 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. In Faroese, 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).
In French orthography, ⟨y⟩ is pronounced as [i] when a vowel (as in the words cycle, y) and as [j] as a consonant (as in yeux, 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 words payer, balayer, moyen, essuyer, pays, etc., but in some words it has only a single function: [j] in bayer, mayonnaise, coyote; modifying the vowel at the end of proper names like Chardonnay and Fourcroy. In French ⟨y⟩ can have a diaeresis (tréma) as in Moÿ-de-l’Aisne.
This church at Nigrán, Spain, is labeled as YGLESIA DE REFVGIO. It would be iglesia de refugio («sanctuary church») in modern orthography.
In Spanish, ⟨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 Castille (Ysabel) and Ferdinand II of Aragon. This spelling was reformed by the Royal Spanish Academy and currently is only found in proper names spelled archaically, such as Ybarra or CYII, the symbol of the Canal de Isabel II. Appearing alone as a word, the letter ⟨y⟩ is a grammatical conjunction with the meaning «and» in Spanish and is pronounced /i/. As a consonant, ⟨y⟩ represents [ʝ] in Spanish. The letter is called i/y griega, literally meaning «Greek I», after the Greek letter ypsilon, or ye.
In Portuguese, ⟨y⟩ (called ípsilon in Brazil, and either ípsilon or i grego in Portugal) was, together with ⟨k⟩ and ⟨w⟩, recently reintroduced as the 25th letter, and 19th consonant, of the Portuguese alphabet, in consequence of the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990. It is mostly used in loanwords from English, Japanese and Spanish. Loanwords in general, primarily gallicisms in both varieties, are more common in Brazilian Portuguese than in European Portuguese. It was always common for Brazilians to stylize Tupi-influenced names of their children with the letter (which is present in most Romanizations of Old Tupi) e.g. Guaracy, Jandyra, Mayara – though placenames and loanwords derived from indigenous origins had the letter substituted for ⟨i⟩ over time e.g. Nictheroy became Niterói.
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 a semivowel depending 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.
In Guaraní, it represents the vowel [ɨ].
In Polish, it represents the vowel [ɘ] (or, according to some descriptions, [ɨ̞]), which is clearly different from [i], e.g. my (we) and mi (me). No native Polish word begins with ⟨y⟩; very few foreign words keep ⟨y⟩ at the beginning, e.g. yeti (pronounced [ˈjɛtʲi]).
In Czech and Slovak, 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 consonants d, t, n (also l in Slovak) before orthographic (and historical) ⟨y⟩ are not palatalized, whereas they are before ⟨i⟩. ⟨ý⟩ can never begin any word, while ⟨y⟩ can never begin a native word.
In Welsh, it is usually pronounced [ə] in non-final syllables and [ɨ] or [i] (depending on the accent) in final syllables.
In the Standard Written Form of the Cornish Language, it represents the [ɪ] and [ɪː] of Revived Middle Cornish and the [ɪ] and [iː] of Revived Late Cornish. It can also represent Tudor and Revived Late Cornish [ɛ] and [eː] and consequently be replaced in writing with ⟨e⟩. It is also used in forming a number of diphthongs. As a consonant it represents [j].
In Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Karelian and Albanian, ⟨y⟩ is always pronounced [y].
In Estonian, ⟨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 in Finnish.
In Lithuanian, ⟨y⟩ is the 15th letter (following ⟨į⟩ and preceding ⟨j⟩ in the alphabet) and is a vowel. It is called the long i and is pronounced /iː/, like in English see.
When used as a vowel in Vietnamese, 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 the palatal approximant. The capital letter ⟨Y⟩ is also used in Vietnamese as a given name.
In Aymara, Indonesian/Malaysian, Turkish, Quechua and the romanization of Japanese, ⟨y⟩ is always a palatal consonant, denoting [j], as in English.
In Malagasy, the letter ⟨y⟩ represents the final variation of /ɨ/.
In Turkmen, ⟨y⟩ represents [ɯ].
In Washo, lower-case ⟨y⟩ represents a typical wye sound, while upper-case ⟨Y⟩ represents a voiceless wye sound, a bit like the consonant in English hue.
Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨y⟩ corresponds to the close front rounded vowel, and the related character ⟨ʏ⟩ corresponds to the near-close near-front rounded vowel.
The SI prefix for 1024 is yotta, abbreviated by the letter Y.
The Dutch digraph IJ is sometimes written like a Cyrillic У.
Maryland license plate. Letter Y is written like a Cyrillic У.
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
- Y with diacritics: Ý ý Ỳ ỳ Ŷ ŷ Ÿ ÿ Ỹ ỹ Ẏ ẏ Ỵ ỵ ẙ Ỷ ỷ Ȳ ȳ Ɏ ɏ Ƴ ƴ
- ʎ and ʏ are used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- IPA superscript letters: 𐞠[9] 𐞲[9] 𐞡[10][11]
- 𝼆 : Small letter turned y with belt is an extension to IPA for disordered speech (extIPA)[10][11]
- U+AB5A ꭚ LATIN SMALL LETTER Y WITH SHORT RIGHT LEG is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system[12]
- ʸ is used for phonetic transcription
- Ỿ ỿ : Y with loop is used by some Welsh medievalists to indicate the schwa sound of ⟨y⟩[13]
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- 𐤅: Semitic letter Waw, from which the following symbols originally derive
- Υ υ : Greek letter Upsilon, from which Y derives
- Ⲩ ⲩ : Coptic letter epsilon/he (not to be confused with the unrelated Greek letter Ε ε called epsilon)
- 𐌖 : Old Italic U/V, which is the ancestor of modern Latin V and U
- 𐍅 : Gothic letter uuinne/vinja, which is transliterated as w
- У у : Cyrillic letter U, which derives from Greek upsilon via the digraph omicron-upsilon used to represent the sound /u/
- Ѵ ѵ : Cyrillic letter izhitsa, which derives from Greek upsilon and represents the sounds /i/ or /v/. This letter is archaic in the modern writing systems of the living Slavic languages, but it is still used in the writing system of the Slavic liturgical language Church Slavonic.
- Ү ү : Cyrillic letter Ue (or straight U)
- Ұ ұ : Kazakh Short U
- Υ υ : Greek letter Upsilon, from which Y derives
Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations
- ¥ : Yen sign
- ⓨ : In Japan, ⓨ is a symbol used for resale price maintenance.
Computing codes
Preview | Y | y | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Y | LATIN SMALL LETTER Y | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 89 | U+0059 | 121 | U+0079 |
UTF-8 | 89 | 59 | 121 | 79 |
Numeric character reference | Y | Y | y | y |
EBCDIC family | 232 | E8 | 168 | A8 |
ASCII[a] | 89 | 59 | 121 | 79 |
On the standard US/UK keyboard Y is the sixth letter of the top row; On the QWERTZ keyboard used in Central Europe it is replaced there by Z, and is itself positioned at the bottom left.
Other representations
Notes
- ^ Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.
References
- ^ «The Truth About ‘Y’: It’s Mostly a Vowel». Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Also spelled wy, plural wyes.
- ^ «Y», Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); «wy», op. cit.
- ^ Real Academia Española, ed. (2010). «Propuesta de un solo nombre para cada una de las letras del abecedario». Archived from the original on 2010-12-30.
- ^ «Portuguese (Português)». Omniglot. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary Second edition, 1989; online version June 2011, s.v. ‘sylva’
- ^ Burchfield, R.W., ed. (1996), «Ye», The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage (3rd ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 860
- ^ «Joghurt, Jogurt, der, die oder das». Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
- ^ a b Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (2020-11-08). «L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic» (PDF).
- ^ a b Miller, Kirk; Ball, Martin (2020-07-11). «L2/20-116R: Expansion of the extIPA and VoQS» (PDF).
- ^ a b Anderson, Deborah (2020-12-07). «L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R «Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters» and IPA etc. code point and name changes» (PDF).
- ^ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2011-06-02). «L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode «Teuthonista» phonetic characters in the UCS» (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Everson, Michael; Baker, Peter; Emiliano, António; Grammel, Florian; Haugen, Odd Einar; Luft, Diana; Pedro, Susana; Schumacher, Gerd; Stötzner, Andreas (2006-01-30). «L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS» (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-19. Retrieved 2018-03-24.