Y facts for kids

An early Semitic version of the letter waw.

The later Phoenician version of waw.

Y is the twenty-fifth (number 25) letter in the English alphabet. It is sometimes considered a vowel. In words like year, yell, and yes, the Y is a consonant. In words like cry, fly, and sky, the Y is considered a vowel.

Where it came from

Semitic, Phoenician, Greek and Latin

"Y" has appeared as the Semitic letter "waw". This was the first time it appeared in an alphabet. F, U, V, and W also come from the Semitic alphabet. The Greek and Latin alphabets used the Phoenician form of this early alphabet. There are similarities to the old English letter yogh (Ȝȝ). The table shows where the letter "y" came from.

Where the English letter "Y" came from

Phoenician	Greek	Latin	English (approximate times of changes)
			Old	Middle	Now
		→	U →	/U/UU →	/U/
		→	(vowel /y/) →	(vowel /i/) →	(vowels)
		C →
		G →	Ȝ →	G →
				consonantal /j/ →	(consonant)
			Þ →	/th/	-

Images for kids

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  Maryland license plate. Letter Y is written like a Cyrillic У.

See also

In Spanish: Y para niños