y
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Translingual
See also
Pronunciation
IPA (file)
Symbol
y
Gallery
- Letter styles
- Uppercase and lowercase versions of Y, in normal and italic type
- Uppercase and lowercase Y in Fraktur
See also
Other representations of Y:
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English
Pronunciation
Letter
See also
Etymology 2
Abbreviations.
y
Noun
y
- Abbreviation of year.
- 2003, Howard Tanner, Sonia Jones, Becoming a Successful Teacher of Mathematics
- Consider the following questions selected from the tests and estimate the proportion of Y8 pupils you would expect to answer correctly.
- 2003, Howard Tanner, Sonia Jones, Becoming a Successful Teacher of Mathematics
- (UK, television) Abbreviation of youth., usually followed by an age appropriate for the content so marked.
- Y7
- (computing) Abbreviation of yes.
Derived terms
Asturian
Etymology
From Latin et, from Proto-Indo-European *éti.
Pronoun
y (y (or -y), plural ys/yos or -ys/-yos)
- Pronoun for the third-person singular indirect object.
- da-y pan
- give him/her bread
Basque
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /i ɡreko/, [i ɣ̞re̞.ko̞]
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Usage notes
- Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.
Catalan
Cornish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /iː/
Dutch
Alternative forms
- ij (in some words)
Pronunciation
- (letter name): IPA(key): /ɛɪ/, /iˈɡrɛk/, /ˌɣrik.sə ˈɛɪ/
Audio (file)
Usage notes
In certain dialects the letter is pronounced similar to IPA: /ji:/. In these dialects, they will actually write "y" such as in "jy" (IPA: /ji:/) instead of modern standard Dutch jij (IPA: /jɛɪ/).
Fala
French
Etymology 1
From i grec (“Greek i”), referring to the letter upsilon (Υ), originally borrowed from the Greek alphabet, as opposed to "Latin i" (I).
Pronunciation
- (letter name) IPA(key): /i.ɡʁɛk/
Etymology 2
10th century; from Old French i, from Latin hīc (“here”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ḱe (“this, here”)), with meaning influenced by Old French iv (“there, thither”), itself from Latin ibī. Derivation from the latter poses difficulty from a phonetic standpoint. Compare Catalan hi.
Pronoun
y (adverbial)
- there (at a place)
- Il est dans la maison. Il y est.
- He is in the house. He is there.
- there, thither (to there)
- Nous allons au Mexique. Nous y allons.
- We are going to Mexico. We are going there.
- Used as a pronoun to replace an adverbial phrase starting with à.
- Je pense à mon pays. J'y pense.
- I think about my country. I think about it.
- With verbs: see Appendix:French verbs followed by à for verbs which use this structure.
- (archaic) With adjectives. Only used with a handful of adjectives (the most common combination being y compris, which is a special case), mainly in legal terminology.
- personnes y nommées ― Persons named there(in)
- procédures y afférentes ― Related procedures
- documents y relatifs ― Related documents
- eaux y affluentes ― Tributary waters
Related terms
Number | Person | Gender | Nominative (subject) |
Accusative (direct complement) |
Dative (indirect complement) |
Locative (at) |
Genitive (of) |
Disjunctive (tonic) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | First | — | je, j’ | me, m’ | — | — | moi | |
Second | — | tu | te, t’ | — | — | toi | ||
Third | Masculine | il | le, l’ | lui | y | en | lui | |
Feminine | elle | la, l’ | elle | |||||
Indeterminate | on1 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
Reflexive | — | se, s’4 | — | — | soi4 | |||
Plural | First | — | nous | nous | — | — | nous | |
Second | — | vous2 | vous2,3 | — | — | vous2 | ||
Third | Masculine | ils3 | les | leur | y | en | eux3 | |
Feminine | elles | elles |
- 1 Also used as the first person plural.
- 2 Also used as the polite singular form.
- 3 Also used when a group has both men and women.
- 4 Also used as third person plural reflexive.
Etymology 3
Eye dialect spelling or contraction of il and ils.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /i/
Pronoun
y
Further reading
- “y”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Fula
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /j/
German
Pronunciation
- (phoneme) IPA(key): /yː/, /y/, /ʏ/, /i/, /ɪ/, /j/
- (letter name) IPA(key): /ˈʏpsilɔn/
Audio (file)
Letter
y n (strong, genitive y, plural y)
- the letter y
Hungarian
Pronunciation
- (phoneme): IPA(key): [ˈi]
- (letter name): IPA(key): [ˈipsilon]
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Usage notes
As shown in the alphabet below, this letter normally occurs in Hungarian words only as part of four digraphs: gy, ly, ny, and ty (with their long counterparts: ggy, lly, nny, tty). Aside from them, the terms containing y defined in an extensive Hungarian monolingual dictionary[1] are baby-doll, baby-sitter, body (“bodice”), body-building / bodyzik / bodyzó, boy, brandy, citoyen, country/countryzene, cowboy/cowboyfilm/cowboykalap, curry, disc-jockey, doyen, dry, dyn, fair play, háryjános/háryjánoskodik, intercity, joystick, play back, playboy, royalista, sherry, spray, whisky, yard, yperit, yuppie, złoty and the letter itself. Additionally, a newer and more comprehensive but as yet incomplete dictionary[2] contains bicsérdysta, byte, copyright, and cowboycsizma. (The forms dandy, gentry, happy end (“happy ending”), jersey, maya, nylon, and yen are also mentioned as alternative forms in the former volume, but their current standard spelling is dendi, dzsentri, dzsörzé, hepiend, jen, maja, and nejlon.)
Proper names written with y include the country names Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelle-szigetek, and Uruguay and the capital names Conakry, Port Moresby, and Reykjavík. Other names deriving from Latin alphabets are also retained (such as English Calgary, Hollywood, Kentucky, Montgomery, New Jersey, New York, Sydney, Wyoming etc., German Bayreuth, Speyer, Steyr, French Lyon, Mayotte, Nancy, Vichy, and Polish Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Przemyśl). Otherwise, this letter is usually transcribed in country and city names, for example Jemen (“Yemen”), Malajzia (“Malaysia”), Nepjida (“Naypyidaw”), and Rijád (“Riyadh”).
Declension
Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony) | ||
---|---|---|
singular | plural | |
nominative | y | y-ok |
accusative | y-t | y-okat |
dative | y-nak | y-oknak |
instrumental | y-nal | y-okkal |
causal-final | y-ért | y-okért |
translative | y-ná | y-okká |
terminative | y-ig | y-okig |
essive-formal | y-ként | y-okként |
essive-modal | — | — |
inessive | y-ban | y-okban |
superessive | y-on | y-okon |
adessive | y-nál | y-oknál |
illative | y-ba | y-okba |
sublative | y-ra | y-okra |
allative | y-hoz | y-okhoz |
elative | y-ból | y-okból |
delative | y-ról | y-okról |
ablative | y-tól | y-októl |
non-attributive possessive - singular |
y-é | y-oké |
non-attributive possessive - plural |
y-éi | y-okéi |
Possessive forms of y | ||
---|---|---|
possessor | single possession | multiple possessions |
1st person sing. | y-om | y-aim y-jaim |
2nd person sing. | y-od | y-aid y-jaid |
3rd person sing. | y-a y-ja |
y-ai y-jai |
1st person plural | y-unk | y-aink y-jaink |
2nd person plural | y-otok | y-aitok y-jaitok |
3rd person plural | y-uk y-juk |
y-aik y-jaik |
Derived terms
- y-nyi
- y-odik
- y-os
See also
- (Latin-script letters) betű; A a, Á á, B b, C c, Cs cs, D d, Dz dz, Dzs dzs, E e, É é, F f, G g, Gy gy, H h, I i, Í í, J j, K k, L l, Ly ly, M m, N n, Ny ny, O o, Ó ó, Ö ö, Ő ő, P p, R r, S s, Sz sz, T t, Ty ty, U u, Ú ú, Ü ü, Ű ű, V v, Z z, Zs zs. Only in the extended alphabet: Q q W w X x Y y. Commonly used: ch. Also defined: à ë. In surnames (selection): ä aa cz ds eé eö ew oe oó th ts ÿ.
References
- 75,000 entries in Pusztai, Ferenc (ed.). Magyar értelmező kéziszótár (’A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003. 2nd, expanded and revised edition. →ISBN (The online version is available with registration for one 2-hour free trial per month.)
- As of 2021, completed until ELZ. Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (’A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress)
Further reading
- y in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
Ido
Indonesian
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Italian
Letter
y f or m (invariable, lower case, upper case Y)
- the twenty-fifth letter of the Latin alphabet, called ipsilon, i greco or i greca in Italian
Usage notes
- The letter Y is not considered part of the Italian alphabet. It is found mainly in loanwords.
Kabuverdianu
Etymology
From Spanish y and Portuguese e .
References
- Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN
Khumi Chin
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʔɘ˥/
Ladin
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /yː/, [yː]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /i/, [iː]
Coordinate terms
References
- y in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Latin Grammar (3rd ed., 1895), page 1
- The Latin names for the letters… For Y the sound was used, for Z the Greek name (zēta).
Malay
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Mandinka
Manx
Mbyá Guaraní
Middle French
Norwegian
Pronunciation
- (letter name): IPA(key): /yː/
- (phoneme): IPA(key): /yː/, /y/
Audio (file)
Usage notes
- Perhaps the most troublesome sound in Norwegian. Even some native speakers tend to merge it into /i(ː)/.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Old Tupi
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʔɨ/
Papiamentu
Alternative forms
- i (alternative spelling)
Etymology
From Spanish y and Portuguese e and Kabuverdianu i.
Portuguese
Pronunciation
Letter name: (ípsilon)
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈip.si.lõ/
Audio (BR) (file)
Letter name: (i grego)
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡu/
- (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡo/
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /ˈi ˈɡɾe.ɡu/ [ˈi ˈɣɾe.ɣu]
Phoneme:
- IPA(key): /i/, /j/ (loanwords)
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /j/, /i/
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Usage notes
Used chiefly in recent loanwords and foreign proper nouns.
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (phoneme) /ʝ/, /i/
- IPA(key): (letter name, everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay) /ˈʝe/ [ˈɟ͡ʝe]
- IPA(key): (letter name, Buenos Aires and environs) /ˈʃe/ [ˈʃe]
- IPA(key): (letter name, elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /ˈʒe/ [ˈʒe]
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
See also
Etymology 2
From Old Spanish è or e, from Latin et.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): (preconsonantal) /i/ [i]
- Rhymes: -i
- Syllabification: y
- IPA(key): (prevocalic) /ʝ/
- (Castilian)
Audio (file)
Conjunction
y
- and
- 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha1, Chapter I:
- Es, pues, de saber que este sobredicho hidalgo, los ratos que estaba ocioso —que eran los más del año—, se daba a leer libros de caballerías, con tanta afición y gusto, que olvidó casi de todo punto el ejercicio de la caza y aun la administración de su hacienda; y llegó a tanto su curiosidad y desatino en esto, que vendió muchas hanegas de tierra de sembradura para comprar libros de caballerías en que leer, y, así, llevó a su casa todos cuantos pudo haber dellos.
- You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure (which was mostly all the year round) gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property; and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get.
- 1605, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quijote de la Mancha1, Chapter I:
- (in names of number) and
- setenta y seis ― seventy-six
- (in arithmetic) plus, and
- uno y uno son dos ― one plus one is two
- (informal) well
- ¡Y por supuesto! ― Well, of course!
- (informal) what about, how about, where is/are the
- Pero, ¿y el concierto? ¿Ya no vamos? ― But what about the concert? Are we not going anymore?
- ¿Y la niña? ¿Está a salvo? ― How about the girl? Is she safe?
- ¿Y los archivos? Debo echarles un vistazo. ― Where are the files? I should take a look at them.
Usage notes
- Before words that begin with the /i/ sound, the form e is used instead.
Derived terms
Further reading
- “y”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Tày
Pronunciation
- (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA(key): [ʔi˧˧]
- (Trùng Khánh) IPA(key): [ʔi˦˥]
Preposition
y
- along
- y te hết ― do like he/she does (literally do along him/her)
- Đăm nà y thỏi cáu
- Follow the old customs when planting rice (literally Plant rice like the previous rows)
- according to
- y cằm po̱ me̱ ― according to the parents' words
Turkish
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Vietnamese
Pronunciation
- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔi˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]
- (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɪj˧˧]
Etymology 1
Sino-Vietnamese word from 伊.
Noun
y
- (archaic, literary) he; him; she; her
- 1958, Nguyễn Đổng Chi, "Thạch Sùng còn thiếu mẻ kho hay là Sự tích con mối" (Kho tàng truyện cố tích Việt Nam nr. 36), NXB Văn sử địa
- Hồi đó ở kinh đô có một người em hoàng hậu họ Vương. Y cũng là tay cự phú nổi tiếng tiền rừng biển bạc và xài phí vào bậc nhất.
- At the time, there was in the capital a brother of the queen of the Wáng family. He was also a famous for being immensely rich and was an extravagant spender of first degree.
- Hồi đó ở kinh đô có một người em hoàng hậu họ Vương. Y cũng là tay cự phú nổi tiếng tiền rừng biển bạc và xài phí vào bậc nhất.
- 1958, Nguyễn Đổng Chi, "Thạch Sùng còn thiếu mẻ kho hay là Sự tích con mối" (Kho tàng truyện cố tích Việt Nam nr. 36), NXB Văn sử địa
- (formal, derogatory) he/him, that jerk/prick/thug/criminal
See also
Etymology 2
Sino-Vietnamese word from 依.
Adverb
y
Etymology 3
Sino-Vietnamese word from 醫.
Derived terms
- lương y như từ mẫu (良醫如慈母, “(literary) a good physician is like a good mother”)
- lương y (良醫, “(literary) a good physician”)
- nan y (難醫, “(of disease) difficult to cure”)
- pháp y (法醫, “forensic science”)
- Tây y (西醫, “modern medicine”)
- y dược (醫藥, “medicine and pharmacy”)
- y học (醫學, “medicine”)
- y khoa (醫科, “medicine”)
- y lệnh (醫令, “doctor's instructions”)
- y sinh (醫生, “physician”)
- y sĩ (醫士, “(junior) physician”)
- y tá (醫佐, “nurse”)
- y tế (醫濟, “health care”)
- y viện (醫院, “(literary) hospital”)
- y đạo (醫道, “(literary) art of healing”)
- Đông y (東醫, “traditional East Asian medicine]]”)
Wayampi
References
- Handbook of Amazonian Languages, volume 4 (1998), edited by Desmond C. Derbyshire, Geoffrey K. Pullum
Welsh
Alternative forms
- (with grave accent to indicate otherwise unpredictable short vowel /ə/): ỳ
- (with acute accent to indicate unusually stressed short vowel): ý
- (with circumflex to indicate otherwise unpredictable or unusually stressed long vowel): ŷ
- (with diaeresis to indicate disyllabicity): ÿ
Pronunciation
- (standard) IPA(key): /ə/
- (informal) IPA(key): /əː/
- Rhymes: -ə
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
Mutation
- y cannot be mutated but, being a vowel, does take h-prothesis, for example with the word ysgol (“school; ladder”):
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | h-prothesis |
ysgol | unchanged | unchanged | hysgol |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Derived terms
- Digraph sequences: yw
See also
- (Latin-script letters) llythyren; A a (Á á, À à, Â â, Ä ä), B b, C c, Ch ch, D d, Dd dd, E e (É é, È è, Ê ê, Ë ë), F f, Ff ff, G g, Ng ng, H h, I i (Í í, Ì ì, Î î, Ï ï), J j, L l, Ll ll, M m, N n, O o (Ó ó, Ò ò, Ô ô, Ö ö), P p, Ph ph, R r, Rh rh, S s, T t, Th th, U u (Ú ú, Ù ù, Û û, Ü ü), W w (Ẃ ẃ, Ẁ ẁ, Ŵ ŵ, Ẅ ẅ), Y y (Ý ý, Ỳ ỳ, Ŷ ŷ, Ÿ ÿ)
- (Latin-script letter names) llythyren; a, bi, ec, èch, di, èdd, e, èf, èff, èg, eng, aetsh, i / i dot, je, ce, el, èll, em, en, o, pi, ffi, ciw, er, rhi, ès, ti, èth, u / u bedol, fi, w, ecs, y, sèd
Mutation
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | h-prothesis |
y | unchanged | unchanged | hy |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Etymology 2
From Middle Welsh y, yr, from Old Welsh ir, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *sindos.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ə/
- Rhymes: -ə
Article
y (definite) (triggers soft mutation of a feminine singular noun, except ll and rh remain unmutated)
Etymology 3
Merger of two formerly distinct particles, ydd and yd.
- (1) from earlier ydd, from Middle Welsh yd, from Proto-Celtic *ide- (compare Breton e, ez, Cornish y, yth, Old Irish id), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁i-dʰei- (compare Latin ibi (“here”), Avestan 𐬌𐬛𐬁 (idā, “here, in the same way”), and Sanskrit इह (ihá, “here”)).
- (2) from earlier yd, from Middle Welsh yt, from Old Welsh it, from Proto-Celtic *ita- (compare Breton e, ez); akin to Latin ita (“so, thus”), dialectal Lithuanian it (“as”), and Sanskrit íti (“thus, in this manner”).
Alternative forms
- yr (used before vowels and h)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ə/
- Rhymes: -ə
Particle
y
- (literary) that (preverbal particle used to mark a subordinate clause)
- Wyt ti'n meddwl y gall hi ddod?
- Do you think that she can come?
- Mae hi'n gwybod y byddet ti'n gwrando arni hi.
- She knows that you would listen to her.
- (literary) which, whom (particle used with indirect relative clauses)
- y dyn y dysgais ei fab ― the man whose son I taught
- y ferch y gwrandewais arni ― the girl to whom I listened
- (literary) preverbal particle used to mark an affirmative verb in a main clause
- 1620, William Morgan, Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan, Genesis 1:1
- Yn y dechreuad y creodd Duw y nefoedd a’r ddaear.
- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- Yn y dechreuad y creodd Duw y nefoedd a’r ddaear.
- 1620, William Morgan, Y Bibl Cyssegr-lan, Genesis 1:1
Usage notes
- y is almost always omitted in colloquial speech.
- y is used to mean 'that' (i.e. mark a subordinate clause) when the subordinate clause begins with an affirmative form of bod not in the present tense, or another affirmative verb in any tense apart from the preterite.
Yoruba
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)
See also
- (Latin-script letters) lẹ́tà; A a (Á á, À à, Ā ā), B b, D d, E e (É é, È è, Ē ē), Ẹ ẹ (Ẹ́ ẹ́, Ẹ̀ ẹ̀, Ẹ̄ ẹ̄), F f, G g, Gb gb, H h, I i (Í í, Ì ì, Ī ī), J j, K k, L l, M m (Ḿ ḿ, M̀ m̀, M̄ m̄), N n (Ń ń, Ǹ ǹ, N̄ n̄), O o (Ó ó, Ò ò, Ō ō), Ọ ọ (Ọ́ ọ́, Ọ̀ ọ̀, Ọ̄ ọ̄), P p, R r, S s, Ṣ ṣ, T t, U u (Ú ú, Ù ù, Ū ū), W w, Y y
- As used in Benin: (Latin-script letters) lɛ́tà; A a, B b, D d, E e, Ɛ ɛ, F f, G g, Gb gb, H h, I i, J j, K k, Kp kp, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ɔ ɔ, P p, R r, S s, Sh sh, T t, U u, W w, Y y
Zulu
Letter
y (lower case, upper case Y)