Y is the twenty-fifth (number 25) letter in the Englishalphabet.[1] 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 a vowel. In Afrikaans, Dutch and French, the letter Y also has a kind with a diaeresis (Ÿ, ÿ).
"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.
↑"Y" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "wy," op. cit.