Why {and how} was Y Invented?
The History of the Letter ‘Y’
In Latin, the letter “Y’ was named Y Graeca (pronounced ee-grayka) which literally means “Greek Y”. It was named this because the sound it made (“similar to modern German ü or French u”) wasn’t a native sound for Latin speakers. It was usually only used for foreign words.
{in Middle English it was ‘wi’ /wiː/, which through the Great Vowel Shift became the Modern English ‘wy’ /waɪ/.} (Source: Wikipedia)
From “the” to “ye” and back
When printing was introduced to Britain, English printers used Y in place of Þ (“thorn” or “hard th” in today’s english), which did not exist in “continental typefaces” . From this comes the spelling of “the” as “ye” in the mock archaic phrases such as “Ye Olde Shoppe”.
Journey to the Modern Letter Y
Before we had the letter Y we had the letter “thorn”. The letter thorn “Þ, þ” was used as a “hard th sound”. This sound was used at the beginning of words such as “þorn” (thorn) and “þirty” (thirty). However, in the Old English setting, when print typing had just been invented, the printing presses used the Latin alphabet. The symbol for thorn looked so similar to the “new letter” Y that eventually, thorn was removed from the alphabet and replaced by the letter “Y”. This brought about the english letter Y as we know it today!
Is Y a vowel?
This is a fairly common question that the average person never receives a straight answer to.
To answer it, let’s return to Y’s history: The greek letter Upsilon’s capital form has been used as a replacement for V, U, and W since the first century. Later when it was re-introduced, Y was given it’s “foot”. When the letter lost it’s roundness during the time of middle english, it looked similar to letter “i’ and therefore it started being pronounced like “i”.
On the flip side, Y can make the consonant sound “yeh” (much like the letter “j” used to) as in “year”. This sound was given to the letter “Y” when the the letter yogh was eliminated from the English alphabet when yogh’s other sound “silent gh” (as in “light” and “right”) became represented by… “gh” {Thanks to the French}.
So the answer to the question is… Y is not a vowel or a consonant. It’s both. It only depends on the word it’s used in. The official term is a “semivowel”.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the letter Y has made quite a journey to get to the status that it holds today. It has quite a history, that has carried it through over five different cultures, and, thankfully, made it’s way into the English alphabet.
Bibliography
“Y.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 June 2014. Web. 02 July 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y>.
“Dictionary.com.” Dictionary.com Blog. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 02 July 2014. <http://blog.dictionary.com/letters-alphabet/>.
