Why is Y sometimes a vowel?

The Week ^ | 1/18/15 | Arika Okrent

[DallasBiff]

A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y. You might have learned it as a chant, a song, or a simple declaration, but this is how you learned the vowels of English. You may have wondered, why is Y so unsure of itself? Can't we just decide what it is? Why is Y a "sometimes" vowel?

Because writing is not the same thing as speech. While we casually refer to letters, which are written symbols, as vowels or consonants, the concepts of vowel and consonant properly belong to the domain of speech. In general terms, a consonant is a speech sound formed by some kind of constriction or impeding of air flow through the vocal tract, and a vowel lets the air flow freely through. The letter Y can stand for either of these types of sounds. In "yes," Y is representing a consonant, and in "gym" it is representing a vowel.

[DallasBiff]

I know from 10 years ago, some think the letter "y" is non binary, but I will stick with the experts at "Wheel of Fortune", that the letter "Y" is a consonant.

Before anybody gets mad at me, the above is tongue in cheek, mods pull if to controversial.

[BipolarBob]

Before anybody gets mad at me, the above is tongue in cheek, mods pull if to controversial.

This triggers me. I feel like blocking a bridge, hanging from a billboard but I think self immolation is going too far. I'll go to my safe space and cuddle with my teddy bear until I get over it.

[Chode]

but they never taught us when it was a vowel...

[BipolarBob]

mods pull if to controversial.

Next time try "too". As in too controversial. You're really pushing peoples buttons here.

[left that other site]

Y can be a Consonant or a Vowel,

But Pluto will always be a PLANET to me.

[Greg123456]

What is the second vowel in “rhythm”?

[Jamestown1630]

LOL!

I agree :-)

[lee martell]

Some consider Y as an ancient glyph for “dangling participles”.

[Dr. Sivana]

[Olog-hai]

Y, as in Greek upsilon, started as a vowel. Same with its variants U, V and W. It always had both consonant and vowel forms, same with the letter it currently falsely shares a pronunciation with in contemporary speech, I (as from Greek iota).

Lots of articles not from 2024 being posted . . .

[BradyLS]

“A, E, I, O, and U. And sometimes Y” was how I learned the vowels.

Y is a consonant until does the duty of a vowel in words like: cry, dry, fly, my, try, wyrd, and some others.

[P.O.E.]

We learned it as “sometimes Y and W “

Turns out there’s a perfectly good scrabble word “cwm” (pronounced “koom”)

[PAR35]

A secret they don’t share in school - English actually has more than 26 letters. Don’t trust your English teachers.

Among the suppressed letters is & (pronounced et). Another vowel they try to suppress is Æ. And finally, there’s the borrowed ï. And don’t forget to resume work on your résumé.

[Dr. Sivana]

What is the second vowel in “rhythm”?

"Y", the "m" acts as a syllabic consonant and contains a second "y". (I had to look that up.)

[dfwgator]

I need to brush up on the umlaut.

[Chode]

i mean when i was in school, at least i don’t remember it, they just said it...

[Bullish]

Because sometimes you have to PARTY?

[Jamestown1630]

It seems to do with how it’s formed in the mouth, and its relationships to other letters in in the word:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/why-y-is-sometimes-a-vowel-usage

[dfwgator]

Because sometimes you have to PARTY?

You have to fight for your right.

[Jamestown1630]

That’s Welsh.