Y

Y or y, the twenty-fourth letter of our alphabet. Its sound is formed by expressing the breath with a sudden expansion of the lips from that configuration by which we express the vowel u. At the beginning of words, it is commonly taken for a consonant, being placed before all vowels, as in yard, yield, young, &c. but before no consonant. At the end of words it is a vowel, and is substitute for the sound of i, as in try, desery, &c. In the middle of words it is not used so frequently as i, unless in words derived from the Greek, as in chyle, empyrean, &c. though it is admitted into the middle of some pure English words, as dying, flying, &c. The Romans had no capital of this letter, but used the small one in the middle and last syllables of words, as in coryambus, onyx, martyr. Y is also a numeral, signifying 150, or, according to Baronius, 150, and with a dash over it, as Y, it signified 150,000.