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] |
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, pyjamas
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.
External links
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] |
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, pyjamas
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.
External links
Толковый словарь русского языка. Поиск по слову, типу, синониму, антониму и описанию. Словарь ударений.
Найдено определений: 21
игрек
ТОЛКОВЫЙ СЛОВАРЬ
м.
1. Название буквы латинского алфавита.
2. Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая такой буквой (в математике).
3. Условное обозначение неизвестного или неназываемого лица.
ТОЛКОВЫЙ СЛОВАРЬ УШАКОВА
И́ГРЕК, игрека, муж. (франц. «i» grec, букв. греческое «и»). Название предпоследней буквы во франц. алфавите (Y, y).
|| Неизвестная искомая величина в математике, обозначаемая этой буквой, наряду с буквами x, z. «Эта задача собственно алгебраическая… ее с иксом и игреком можно…» Чехов.
|| Обозначение не известного или не называемого лица. Гражданин Y.
ТОЛКОВЫЙ СЛОВАРЬ ОЖЕГОВА
И́ГРЕК, -а, муж. В математике: обозначение (латинской буквой «у») неизвестной или переменной величины.
ПОПУЛЯРНЫЙ СЛОВАРЬ
Игрек
-а, м.
1) Название предпоследней буквы латинского алфавита: y, y.
2) мат. Символ для обозначения неизвестной или переменной величины (наряду с x, z).
Уравнение с игреком.
3) В литературном произведении: условное обозначение неизвестного или умышленно не называемого лица.
Мы иксы и игреки, которые обязываются внести свою лепту и исчезнуть (Салтыков-Щедрин).
Этимология:
От французского i grec ‘греческое и’.
Энциклопедический комментарий:
Игрек соответствует греческому ипсилон, имеющему такое же обозначение. В латинском языке y употребляется в основном в словах греческого происхождения (в начале слова не встречается). Буквами y, x (икс) и z (зет) принято обозначать соответственно ось ординат, ось абсцисс и ось аппликат в системе декартовых координат, которой пользуются для определения положения какой-либо точки на плоскости или в пространстве.
ЭНЦИКЛОПЕДИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
И́ГРЕК -а; м.
1. Название предпоследней буквы (Y) латинского алфавита.
2. Матем. Обозначение (латинской буквой «y») неизвестной или переменной величины. Алгебраическая задача решается с иксом и игреком. // Условное обозначение неизвестного или умышленно не называемого числа или лица. Он для меня человек и.
АКАДЕМИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
-а, м.
1. Название предпоследней буквы (y) латинского алфавита.
2. Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая этой буквой (наряду с буквами x, z) (мат.).
— Это задача, собственно говоря, алгебраическая —. Ее с иксом и игреком решить можно. Чехов, Репетитор.
||
Условное обозначение неизвестного или умышленно не называемого лица.
Мы иксы и игреки, которые обязываются внести свою лепту и исчезнуть. Салтыков-Щедрин, Письма к тетеньке.
Ни одного громкого, заманчивого для Москвы имени не было в труппе. По словам набалованных театралов, все они были «иксы, игреки и знаки вопроса». Телешов, Записки писателя.
СБОРНИК СЛОВ И ИНОСКАЗАНИЙ
игрек —
икс
I.
(иноск.) — неизвестный (намек на алгебр. знак и формулы)
Ср. Каждый день вынимаю я из шкатулки… мое выкупное свидетельство (и думаю), мне ли оно принадлежит или какому-то иксу, которого я даже назвать по имени не могу.
Салтыков. Сборник. Дети Москвы. 2.
Ср. Un petit godiche (простачок неопытный)… не прошедший ни через какой struggle for life и видящий в жизни какой-то математический икс, к разрешению которого он не знает формулы.
Б.М. Маркевич. Бездна. 3, 17.
См. икс (игрек).
См. борьба за существование.
См. формула.
II.
(игрек)
(иноск.) — вместо имени того или другого лица (намек на алгебраический знак неизвестного)
Ср. Софья Александровна кокетничала со всеми… даже не задумываясь над вопросом: «к чему ей понадобилось кокетство с Иксом или Игреком?»
А.А. Соколов. Тайна. 13.
Ср. Муж ваш не будет злобствовать, если вы, помимо его, облегчите участь икса или игрека…
Боборыкин. Поумнел. 29.
См. икс.
ПОГОВОРКИ
Игрек Игрекович. Жарг. шк. Шутл. Учитель по имени Игорь Игоревич. ВМН 2003, 56.
ОРФОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
и́грек, -а (название буквы)
СЛОВАРЬ УДАРЕНИЙ
ТРУДНОСТИ ПРОИЗНОШЕНИЯ И УДАРЕНИЯ
и́грек (неправильно игре́к).
ФОРМЫ СЛОВ
и́грек, и́греки, и́грека, и́греков, и́греку, и́грекам, и́греком, и́греками, и́греке, и́греках
СИНОНИМЫ
сущ., кол-во синонимов: 1
МОРФЕМНО-ОРФОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
ГРАММАТИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
ЭТИМОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
Искон. Сращение франц. оборота i grec «греческое и» (название предпоследней буквы лат. азбуки, соответствующее греч. ипсилону).
СЛОВАРЬ ГАЛЛИЦИЗМОВ РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА
ИГРЕК y i grec. букв. греческое «И».
1. Название предпоследней буквы во фр. алфавите.
2. Неизвестная искомая величина в математике, обозначаемая этой буквой, наряду с буквами x, z. Уш. 1934. Это задача собственно алгебраическая … ее с иксом и игреком можно. Чехов. //Уш. Круглорогий прочерченный икс хорошо мне известен; он — с зетиками, с игреком. Белый Котик Летаев 97. Алгебраически, с применением «иксов» и «игреков» задачу можно было решить за пять минут. Москва 2001 6 103.
3. Обозначение неизвестного или не называемого лица. Уш. 1934. В краковской газете «Час» нынешняго года напечатаны статьи баронессы Икс-игрек-зет под заглавием Варшавское общество. РА 1885 11 433. Один из них <посетителей> был присяжный хроникер газеты, неизвестный публике и подписывавшийся игреком, другой был земцем. Г. Успенский Кое-про-что. // СВ 1886 3 1 21. И мне жаль видеть, как X, Y или Z теряют время в спорах о присоединении <территорий>, о ректификации, о дизлокации, как будто нечего делать. Набл. 1883 9 1 183. Вообще в литературном обиходе .. приходится наблюдать эпизоды какой-то взаимной поддержки, когда товарищ Икс хвалит тов. Игрека, потому что Игрек хвалит Икса. 1946. Н. Н. Никитин. // Звезда 1996 8 10.
4. Имеющий форму этой буквы. В названии рыбы. Игрек-хвостая киэтула. СНЖ рыбы 9651.
5. биол. Сегодня продолжал думать о женщинах, но уже на молекулярном уровне — об их генах, в которых по две х-хромосомы, а мужских — одна икс, другая — игрек. В. Краковский Курс стохастики. // Нева 1999 10 25.
6. Буква рус. алфавита «У». В те далекие времена подъезды московских домов только начинали исписываться мелом.. Любимое народом слово с иксом и игреком появлялось нечасто и в основном на заборах. Дворники и лифтеры не находили себе места внутри советских домов и стирали мел тряпкой. Ю. Арабов Биг-бит. // Знамя 2003 7 26. — Лекс. Уш. 1934: игри/к.
СКАНВОРДЫ
— Неизменный спутник икса.
— Конкурент икса по неизвестности.
— Вторая по популярности «загадочная» буква.
— Перпендикуляр иксу.
— Буква оси ординат.
— Буква латинского алфавита.
— Как по-французски будет «греческое и»?
— Фиксик фиолетового цвета.
ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ СЕРВИСЫ
игрек игрекович
ПОГОВОРКИ
Жарг. шк. Шутл. Учитель по имени Игорь Игоревич. ВМН 2003, 56.
ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ СЕРВИСЫ
игрек-сплав
СЛИТНО. РАЗДЕЛЬНО. ЧЕРЕЗ ДЕФИС
и/грек-спла/в, и/грек-спла/ва (Y-сплав)
ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ СЕРВИСЫ
игрековый
ОРФОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ СЛОВАРЬ
ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ СЕРВИСЫ
Значение слова «игрек»
-
И́ГРЕК, -а, м.
1. Название предпоследней буквы (y) латинского алфавита.
2. Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая этой буквой (наряду с буквами x, z) (мат.). — Это задача, собственно говоря, алгебраическая —. Ее с иксом и игреком решить можно. Чехов, Репетитор. || Условное обозначение неизвестного или умышленно не называемого лица. Мы иксы и игреки, которые обязываются внести свою лепту и исчезнуть. Салтыков-Щедрин, Письма к тетеньке. Ни одного громкого, заманчивого для Москвы имени не было в труппе. По словам набалованных театралов, все они были «иксы, игреки и знаки вопроса». Телешов, Записки писателя.
Источник (печатная версия): Словарь русского языка: В 4-х
т. / РАН,
Ин-т лингвистич.
исследований; Под ред. А. П. Евгеньевой. — 4-е изд., стер. — М.: Рус. яз.;
Полиграфресурсы,
1999;
(электронная версия): Фундаментальная
электронная
библиотека
-
И’ГРЕК, а, м. [фр. «i» grec, букв. греческое «и»]. Название предпоследней буквы во фр. алфавите (Y, y). || Неизвестная искомая величина в математике, обозначаемая этой буквой, наряду с буквами x, z. Эта задача собственно алгебраическая … ее с иксом и игреком можно … Чхв. || Обозначение не известного или не называемого лица. Гражданин Y.
Источник: «Толковый словарь русского языка» под редакцией Д. Н. Ушакова (1935-1940);
(электронная версия): Фундаментальная
электронная
библиотека
-
и́грек
1. двадцать пятая буква нерасширенной латиницы
2. матем. математический символ, обозначающий переменную
Источник: Викисловарь
Делаем Карту слов лучше вместе
Привет! Меня зовут Лампобот, я компьютерная программа, которая помогает делать
Карту слов. Я отлично
умею считать, но пока плохо понимаю, как устроен ваш мир. Помоги мне разобраться!
Спасибо! Я стал чуточку лучше понимать мир эмоций.
Вопрос: профилировать — это что-то нейтральное, положительное или отрицательное?
Ассоциации к слову «игрек»
Синонимы к слову «игрек»
Предложения со словом «игрек»
- Слетаю на пару дней, надо убедиться, правда это или нет, но ко дню игрек вернусь обязательно.
- Измерение иксов и игреков удобно производить в положении сидя.
- Единожды увидев рекламное сообщение на одной площадке, типичный игрек вряд ли совершит покупку.
- (все предложения)
Цитаты из русской классики со словом «игрек»
- Они говорят: дело в преуспеянии, а не в том, что к нам пристанет нечисть; мы иксы и игреки, которые обязываются внести свою лепту и исчезнуть, — кому же какая надобность справляться, замараны они или не замараны?
- Там, где короткая улица кончается, поперек ее стоит серая деревянная церковь, которая загораживает от зрителя неофициальную часть порта; тут расщелина двоится в виде буквы «игрек», посылая от себя канавы направо и налево.
- — Охотно забуду, — возразил я, — но ведь если мы подобные личности в стороне оставим, то вопрос-то, пожалуй, совсем иначе поставить придется. Если речь идет только о практиках убежденных, то они не претендуют ни на подачки в настоящем, ни на чествования в будущем. Они заранее обрекают свои имена на забвение и, считая себя простыми иксами и игреками, освобождают себя от всяких забот относительно»замаранности»или»незамаранности». По-моему, это своего рода самоотвержение.
- (все
цитаты из русской классики)
Понятия, связанные со словом «игрек»
-
Список обозначений в физике включает обозначения понятий в физике из школьного и университетского курсов. Также включены и общие математические понятия и операции для того, чтобы сделать возможным полное прочтение физических формул.
-
Ѡ, ѡ (оме́га) — буква старо- и церковнославянской кириллицы, другие названия: от, о. Соответствует греческой букве омега (Ω, ω), хотя воспроизводит только строчное её начертание (заглавное встречается крайне редко, только в заголовках в декоративных целях). В кириллице имеет вид или , в древней (круглой) глаголице — . Числовое значение в кириллице — 800, в глаголице — 700.
-
Буква зю — фразеологическое сочетание, изначально означающее странное, неестественное, скрюченное положение человеческого тела. Это относительно молодой фразеологизм, приобретающий в процессе эволюции новые значения.
-
Компьютер для операций с математическими функциями (в отличие от обычного компьютера) оперирует с функциями на аппаратном уровне (то есть без программирования этих операций).
-
Перено́с в типографике — разрыв части текста (слова, формулы и т. п.), при котором её начало оказывается на одной строке, а конец — на другой.
- (все понятия)
Отправить комментарий
Дополнительно
Смотрите также
-
Слетаю на пару дней, надо убедиться, правда это или нет, но ко дню игрек вернусь обязательно.
-
Измерение иксов и игреков удобно производить в положении сидя.
-
Единожды увидев рекламное сообщение на одной площадке, типичный игрек вряд ли совершит покупку.
- (все предложения)
- ипсилон
- семёрка
- задачка
- арифметик
- эн
- (ещё синонимы…)
- уравнения
- уравнение
- координата
- функция
- график
- (ещё ассоциации…)
- Склонение
существительного «игрек» - Разбор по составу слова «игрек»
- Как правильно пишется слово «игрек»
игрек
м.
1.Название буквы латинского алфавита.
2.Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая такой буквой ( в математике ) .
3.Условное обозначение неизвестного или неназываемого лица.
игрек
(фр. i grec греческое и ) предпоследняя буква латинского алфавита (у); в математике обычно употр. для обозначения либо искомой величины, либо зависимой переменной величины (функции).
игрек
м.
1) Название буквы латинского алфавита.
2) а) Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая такой буквой (в математике). б) Условное обозначение неизвестного или неназываемого лица.
игрек
[ ]предпоследняя буква латинского алфавита (у); в математике обычно употр. для обозначения либо искомой величины, либо зависимой переменной величины (функции).
игрек
`игрек, -а (название буквы)
игрек
игрек м.
1) Название буквы латинского алфавита.
2) а) Неизвестная величина, обозначаемая такой буквой (в математике). б) Условное обозначение неизвестного или неназываемого лица.
игрек
игрека, м. (фр. «i» grec, букв. греческое «и»). Название предпоследней буквы во фр. алфавите (Y, y). || Неизвестная искомая величина в математике, обозначаемая этой буквой, наряду с буквами x, z. Эта задача собственно алгебраическая… ее с иксом и игреком можно… Чехов. || Обозначение не известного или не называемого лица. Гражданин Y.
игрек
игрек, -а (название буквы)
игрек
двадцать пятая буква нерасширенной латиницы математический символ, обозначающий переменную
А» говорит, что икс равен игреку, «Б» утверждает, что икс не равен игреку, так как игрек равен иксу.
Это — производительные силы плюс производственные отношения плюс электрификация всех стран соединяйтесь минус суверенизация всех стран разъединяйтесь минус два икс игрек плюс игрек квадрат… Ой.
Никогда, — объяснил он сам себе, — эти традиционные, школьно известные «неизвестные» — икс и игрек — в сумме — и зет, возведенные в энную степень, не сравняются, если они больше нуля, а эн — больше двух».
Из кельи непризнанного гения вы угодите в бесконечное пространство мировой литературы, в первой шеренге которой, за чертой горизонта, выступают Толстой, Сервантес и Джойс, а далеко за вашими спинами в дымке абсолютной безвестности плетутся икс, игрек и зет.
Затем взяла ее в зубы и, периодически покусывая иголки, вывела на бумаге первые строки: Отсыпан час «игрек«…
Экстон — название этого города, как и Нью-Вая, симптоматично: в первом присутствует Х (экс — икс), во втором — Y (вай — игрек).
Стоит упустить какой-нибудь икс или игрек — и задача не решится, какое бы количество последовательных операций мы ни производили.