In general, the Y is a consonant when the syllable already has a vowel. Also, the Y is considered a consonant when it is used in place of the soft J sound, such as in the name Yolanda or Yoda. In the names Bryan and Wyatt, the Y is a vowel, because it provides the only vowel sound for the first syllable of both names.

Nov 6, 2017 · The answer is that Y has always been used as a vowel in English. For example, hyð. The OED has a citation from Corpus Glossary (c736): Deconfugione, statione, hyðae. And another from Metres of Boethius (1000): Þæt is sio an hyð.

A vowel is basically a letter you pronounce with an open vocal tract. Y is a semivowel because sometimes you pronounce it with the tract open (as in sky) and sometimes not (as in yesterday). Pay attention to the position of your tongue when pronouncing vowels and consonants and you will notice the difference.

Dec 6, 2014 · 1) English words do not end with I (nor do Eng. words end with U,V, or J) Therefore, I is used in the middle of English words, Y is used at the end of Eng. words. 2) The single vowel Y (not multi-letter phonograms: -oy, -ey, -ay) changes to I when adding ANY ending (try/tried; beauty/beautiful; baby/babies, copy/copier), UNLESS the ending ...

Apr 16, 2017 · So, the terms 'semi-vowel' and 'glide' are used for these two sounds. The question, when is 'y' a vowel? Has to do with spelling, I think, as opposed to how the sound [y] functions in the English language. In the word 'syllable', the letter 'y' represents the SOUND [I] (to use the phonetic symbol for the sound).

Apr 13, 2017 · In the other words these sounds occur in the nucleus, so we would regard Y as representing a vowel in those words. The word hwyl represents an interesting case. It can be pronounced with two syllables: hu: ɪl or hu: əl. But it can also be pronounced with a single vowel, a diphthong (a single vowel that changes quality), like this: huɪl. In ...

Aug 25, 2011 · For an example of a verb where a vowel comes before the Y, look at how fray becomes frays. (He frays. She frays. It frays.) The bonus here is that when you move on to conjugate the verb for the past tense, the rule remains similar: Where a consonant comes before the Y, change the y to i and add ed; Where a vowel comes before the Y, just add ed

Aug 30, 2010 · It's determined by the letter before the y: Monkey: vowel + y → monkeys; sky: consonant + y → skies; Exception: proper nouns like "Emmy" sometimes form the plural by adding "s". Monies I don't know about, so hopefully someone else can fill in that detail.

Feb 20, 2015 · The /ju/ came from several places: the action of the Great Vowel Shift on the vowel /y/, which was actually used in Middle English for words of French origin like duke, and the action of the Great Vowel Shift on Middle English diphthongs like …

Jul 30, 2020 · The function of the 'y' and 'w' in Yell and Well are not in any material sense different to the leading consonants in Tell, Sell, and Fell. The inclusion of 'y' as a semi-vowel in "cry" or "rhythm" is of course not controversial, but I think it's quite a stretch to go much further than that, when both letters are used as regular consonants.