Y. 



YThe twenty-third letter in the Enghfh alphabet, 

 > borrowed, originally, from the Greek v. 



It is occafionally both vowel and confonant. As a vowel 

 fome authors have judged it unnecefTary in our language, 

 becaufe its found is precifely the fame with that of the ;'. 

 Accordingly, it is but little ufed, except in words borrowed 

 from' the Greek, to denote their origin, by reprefenting the 

 Greek viiAo;. 



The vowel y, however, has a place even in fome words 

 purely Enghfh ; and that both in the middle of them, as in 

 dying, frying. Sec. and at the end, as in lay, &c. 



Some afcribe the ufe of the y, in pure Englirti arid 

 French words, and thofe that have no y in Latin or Greek, 

 to this ; that anciently each of thofe words was written with 

 a double ii ; which having fomething aukward in it, the y 

 was fubllituted in their place. 



Others fay, that thofe words being anciently written, as 

 well as pronounced, with a double ii, as they ftill are in the 

 Walloon, as paiing,paiifan, &c. to avoid their being millakcn 

 for an a with two dots over it, they made the fecond /' longer 

 than the firft, and fo formed the j' without defigning it. 

 Some give a particular reafon why words ending in i came 

 to be written with y ; i-iv.. that the copyifts found the tail 

 of the y very commodious, in adorning the margins and 

 bottoms of pages. 



T was much ufed by the Saxons ; whence it is found for 

 i in the old Eiig'.ifli w'riters. 



When the y follows a confonant, and at the end of wordr, 

 it is a vowel, and has the found of i ; and when it precedes 

 a vowel, or diphthong, and at the beginning of words, it is a 

 confonant. 



Some have thought that y is in all cafes a vowel ; but 

 Dr. Johnfon obferves of j', as of au, that it follows a vowel 

 without any hiatus, as rofy youth. 



The Romans ufed the y for the vowel u, which they had 

 no charafter for, diftinft from the v confonant ; their way 

 being to pronounce the common u, as we do the diphthong 

 im ; and the Greek i/4-i>.oi, as the Englifh and French «. 



Peter Diaconus obferves, that Auguftuji firft took the 

 letters y and z from the Greeks, which were not ufed by 

 the Romans before his time ; s s being viritten for z, and i 

 for y. But Mr. Jackfon (hews, that the y was uft d before 

 the time of Auguftus, though probably (fays Aftle, Orig. 

 and Progr. of Writing, p. 78. ) it was not much older. 



In our own and fome other modern tongues, authors 

 begin to difpenfe more and more with the precife ortho- 

 graphy, which requires all words that have an upfilon, in 

 the Greek, to be written with a y. And with reafon ; 

 fince our Greek y has loft the found it had, in the language 

 from which we borrow it. But it is certainly ridiculous to 



Vol. XXXIX. 



Y A D 



ufe it, as many do, in words which indeed have a Greek 

 origin, but have no u in the Greek, as in eclipfe : yet fome 

 affedl to do this. 



Y is alfo a numer.il letter, fignifying 150, or, according 

 to Baronius, 159 ; as in the verfe, — 



" Y dat centenos et quinquaginta novenos." 



When a dafh was added at top, Y, it fignified 150 thou- 

 fand. 



Pythagoras ufed the Y as a fymbol of human life ; the 

 foot reprefenting infancy, ar.d the forked top the two paths 

 of vice and virtue, one or the other of which people are to 

 enter upon, after attaining to the age of difcretion. 



Y, on the French coins, denotes thofe ftruck at Bourges. 



Y, in Geography, a city of China, of the fecond rank, in 

 Chan-tong ; 317 miles S.S.E. of Peking. N. lat. 35° 10'. 

 E. long. 118' 19'. 



Y, a city of China, of the fecond rank, in Pe-tche-li ; ^^ 

 miles S.W. of Peking. N. lat. 39" 25'. E. long. 115' 14'. 



Y, or Ey, a river, or broad piece of water, which palfes 

 by Amfterdam, exhibiting the appearance of a creek of the 

 fea rather than of a river. 



YA, a city of China, of the fecond rank, in Se-tchuen, 

 on the borders of Thibet ; 840 miles S.W. of Peking. 

 N. lat. 30° 9'. E. long. 102° 39'. 



YABAQUE, one of the Bahama idands, fituated in 

 N. lat. 2 ^"^ 30'. 



YABARGULSKAIA, a town of Ruffia, in the go- 

 vernment of Tobollk, on the Irtifch ; 120 miles E. of 

 Tobolft<. 



YABAY, a town of Burmah ; 50 miles S.W. of Ava. 



YABTONOI, a ridge of the Altaian chain in Afiatic 

 RulTia, bending in a northerly direftion to the vicinity of 

 Ochotfl<. The name denotes the mountains of Apples. 



YACHT. See Ship, and Plate XIII. Skip-BuiUing. 



YACHTA, in Geography, a fort of Ruffia, in the go- 

 vernment of Irkutflv, on the borders of China ; 48 miles 

 S.S.W. of Selenginfk. 



YACINTE, St. See St. Tadntc. 



YACONG Tala, a number of fmall lakes in Thibet, 

 fituated near each other. N. lat. 30° 5c'. E. long. 78° 



39'- 



YADAVA, in Hindoo Mythology, a name of the Hindoo 

 Krithna. It is faid to indicate his being of the family or 

 tribe of Yadu. 



YADI, in Geography, a river of Ruffia, which runs into 

 the Oblkaia gulf, N. lat. 68° 25'. E. long. 72^ 38'.— 

 Alfo, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Obfkaia gulf, 

 N. lat. 67° 25'. E. long. 72= 18'. 



YADKIN, a river of North Carohna, which rifes in the 

 F Allegany 



