Y worry ?

An observant TV watcher wrote recently to the Radio Times to point out the apparent coincidence of two quiz programmes on the same evening asking competitors about English words with no vowels. Both cited the term 'syzygy' as an example.

But no: we wouldn't be able (in English, anyway) to pronounce the word at all if it had no vowels. In this instance the repeated letter y functions as a vowel - once for each of three syllables. The first two letters y in this word represent the Greek vowel 'u' (known as 'upsilon') since the Greek capital upsilon looked very much like our capital Y. The third y in this word represents the Latin vowel termination -ia, because in Late Latin the Greek word was borrowed in the form syzygia, and it was 'Englished' into the word syzygy in the 17th century.

The Greek basis of the word syzygy is built of two main elements: the first is the prefix syn- meaning with, together; the second is the noun zygon meaning a yoke. So the term means a 'yoking together' (especially in the contexts of astronomy, biology and mathematics). Not a word we all use every day.

But we do write and read the vowel y frequently: words such as frequently, for instance; and silly, untidy, style, why, idyll, lymph, tyrant, democracy, company, felony, lady, lychee, tyre, Phyllis, lynch, lychgate, Amaryllis . . . .

So in our language the letter y can serve as either a vowel or a consonant. As the latter, it is uttered as a voiced palatal (a term that means we make the sound with the back of our palate at the same time as releasing a little grunt - try repeating it, and you'll find that's true).

Y worry ?