more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday
Mulling over something to write with Y, I realized that I didn't think (I mean with my brain) "why", but Ypsilon because in the German alphabet the Y is pronounced Ypsilon and apparently in this moment I was thinking in German. Suddenly I found out that in other languages it's also pronounced differently. The English "why" Y becomes "I greque" in French. Why do they say I greque the I pronounced E ? Now I became curious and asked Mr. G. how Y is spelled in Italian, because there are not a lot of words starting with a Y in this language. He looked at me as if I had transformed myself into a Yeti and asked me "Why" (Y) ! I told him I just need the pronunciation. After a long explanation starting from Adam and Eve's history he finally came to the conclusion that in Italian the Y is pronounced I (E) greco, nearly the same as in French. I stop here otherwise it gets boring.
There is a whole history about the letter Y. It first appeared as the Greek letter upsilon.The usage of Y in Latin dates back to the first century BC. It was used to transcribe loanwords from Greek. The Roman Emperor Claudius proposed introducing a new letter into the Latin alphabet to transcribe a short vowel before labial consonants and if you want to increase your general knowledge and know why Y only joined rather late our international alphabet just read it here.
I have learned enough.
"Do we have to know all the letters ? I don't use them all when I text"
