ORGAN IZ v 

 KNOWLEDGE 



STORY 

 AND' PICTURE 



'^L 7^ Y is the twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, and is used 



^y^ ^r TT both as a consonant and as a vowel. The Greeks added to the 



^/ Phoenician alphabet when they adopted it a character which was 



-*- sometimes made like a capital V, sometimes like a Y, and which 



_ represented the oo sound. Gradually the Y form of the letter 



became established as the correct one, and the sound changed to 



that of the German u, a sound not found in the English language. The Romans adopted 

 the letter for use in Greek words, and from them it came into the English alphabet, where 

 by degrees it acquired its present value. 



Like w, y has a vowel as well as a consonant use, but, unlike w, it is frequently used by 

 itself as a vowel, as in such words as try, pretty. As a vowel it has all the sounds of i 

 except that in machine; and since it possesses no other sounds, is really superfluous. As a 

 consonant there is no other letter which could exactly take its place, though even in such 

 words as yellow the initial sound closely resembles that of the short i in it, slighted in 

 pronunciation. 



The character y is occasionally seen in such expressions as "ye olden time;" here it is not 

 properly a y but a survival of the old English thorn, which has passed out of use. It should 

 be pronounced as th. See T. 



Y, or in Dutch Ij, an arm of the Zuider Zee, 

 which juts westward into the Netherlands. 

 Amsterdam is situated on its southern shore. 

 Like much of the coastal region of the Nether- 

 lands, it is being drained and reclaimed, and 

 what was formerly a great arm of the sea is 

 to-day largely agricultural land. A deepened 

 channel of the old Y through the center of this 

 reclaimed section forms part of the North Sea 

 Canal, which connects the Zuider Zee with the 

 North Sea. 



YABLONOI, yablonoi', MOUNTAINS, a 

 partially unexplored range of mountains in Si- 

 beria, extending from the northern part of 

 Mongolia in a northeastern direction for about 

 1,000 miles, when they join the Stanovoi sys- 

 tem. The range forms a dividing line between 

 the rivers which flow into the Arctic Ocean and 

 those that flow into the Pacific. The highest 

 peafc attains an altitude of 8,000 feet, and there 

 are many with heights of 5,000 and 6,000 feet. 

 The whole system forms part of the northeast- 

 ern border of the plateau lands of Central Asia. 

 See map, opposite page 417. 



YACHT AND YACHTING, yot, y of ing. 

 Boats equipped with sails and used for pleasure 

 are known as yachts. There are three impor- 

 tant rigs for these boats cutter, schooner and 

 yawl. A cutter generally carries four sails 

 mainsail, gaff-topsail, foresail and jib and has 

 one mast and a running bowsprit. A schooner 

 is equipped with two masts mainmast and 

 foremast and a standing bowsprit and jib 

 boom, though in some cases these latter are 

 replaced by a running bowsprit. A yawl has 

 the same rigging as a cutter, besides a small 

 mizzenmast. (The principles upon which sail- 

 ing is based and rules for managing such boats 

 are given under the heading SAILBOAT AND SAIL- 

 ING.) 



Steam yachts, and especially gasoline-driven 

 vessels, which have a high rate of speed, are 

 coming rapidly into use. They are especially fa- 

 vored by business men who desire quick trans- 

 portation between their country homes and the 

 business centers. The fastest boats of the 

 largest class use turbine engines, and many of 

 them burn oil instead of coal. 



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