depends on it's placement in the word.
Pub quiz question - name four words where "y" is the vowel (no googling)
In most cases, yeah. In Treacy it is.
Are there only four? I assume words like 'hymn', 'myth' and 'scythe' are examples. What about a word like 'berry'? Or do you mean words where it is the only vowel?
So, if 'y' is a vowel in those words, when is it a consonant? In words like 'yellow', 'yoke' and 'yonder', is it?
Edit: Does 'by' count as a word?
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 07/05/2014 at 6:10 PM.
A far as I know, Y is a vowel when it's not at the beginning or end of a word. Myth, hymn and scythe all count. There's loads more, but the four I'm thinking of have no other vowels. Hymn and myth are two.
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 07/05/2014 at 6:24 PM.
It's a semivowel.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semivowel
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Wymyn.
Wy Wylly Fryzyr
I watch Countdown and y is not a vowel in that show.
I refuse to accept that it's a vowel of any type and I don't care what t'internet says.
That new chick that replaced Carol Vorderman: whoar.
New? Riley?Essex? She has been there ages. BUt yes stutts, brains and beauty, and maths brains, what more do you need? Grande Tetas, well ye got that too Stutts.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
new = since I stopped watching regularly around 1991
Transpires there are quite a few: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English..._vowels#With_y
'Syzygy' is a splendid word. 'Cyst' and 'glyph' are other relatively common examples not mentioned above.In English, the letter 〈y〉 can represent either a vowel or consonant sound, and a large number of Modern English words spell the /ɪ/ and /aɪ/ sounds with 〈y〉, such as sky, spy, shy, fry, fly, why, dry, try, tryst, gym, hymn, lynx, lynch, myth, wyrm, myrrh, rhythm, pygmy, gypsy, flyby, crypt, nymph, and syzygy which are vowels in this case. The longest dictionary words (base forms excluding plurals) are rhythm, spryly, sylphy and syzygy. The longest such word in common use is rhythms, and the longest such word in Modern English is the obsolete 17th-century word symphysy. If archaic words and spellings are considered, there are many more, the longest perhaps being twyndyllyngs, the plural of twyndyllyng meaning "twin".
Twyndyllyngs is a fantastic word.
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