Since when is "Y" a vowel?

[HuntingMoon]

Hello Domainers,

Quick question- I am surfing through the 4-character or less forum and notice that several posters are referring to "Y" as a vowel.

To my knowledge, A E I O U are all the vowels. Am I missing something?

Please advise-

[msl]

maVbe its a nYw way to sYell or is it a Yowel

[Ilze]

Yes, Y is "sometimes" considered a vowel, according to grammar school. They had a rhyme in the old days...a e i o u...and sometimes Y. I am showing my age, but the
"sometimes" just does not make any sense

[Acro]

It is a vowel in Greek, where it originates from.

[biggedon]

a e i o u and sometimes y

[petrosc]

in the word "Myth" Y is a vowel [i]
in the word "Yoke" it's a consonant [j]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant

[Poohnix]

I've never thought about that it wasn't a vowel in the English language - it is in my language, and I would consider it a vowel in many cases in English too... (What is it in the word "My" for example?)
But I don't care about vowels or not in short domain names.. only thing that matters is if it's a word, a good acronym, or (maybe) pronounceable.

[Acro]

In English, "Y" at the beginning of a word (and sometimes within a word) has a soft "g" sound. In Greek, the same sound is achieved by the letter "gamma" or Γ, which is a consonant.

[HuntingMoon]

interesting

myek.com for example, is that a cvvc or a ccvc?

[Banned: theinvestor]

You can't really determine if something is a vowel or not when it's not an actual word. That is why...Y is sometimes a vowel. Depends on the word.

[draggar]

I blogged about this very thing a few months ago.

http://www.draggarsblog.com/2008/02/...stand-you.html

[stewie]

Y is a vowel in my domains

and in yours it's sometimes...LOL

[dotNetKing]

yoyo - a word with 4 vowels? I don't think so.

I seem to remember that vowel has to do with "sounding" - 'vocal' in German. (And therefore more easily applied to phonetics or word sounds, rather than writing).

You can't properly "sound" or pronounce a word without a vowel, at least not in English. Therefore in words like myth, hymn, baby, by, cry etc "y" is a vowel and in words like you, yes, yellow it is a consonant.

I think some of the confusion is due to there not being a precise relationship between letters and sounds.

Different languages have different sets of vowels (spoken) and how they are represented by letters.

It could be that in one language "myek" has two vowels and in another it has just one.

When trying to say that a domain name is cvcv, with one or more of the "v"s being a "y" it really only makes sense to talk of that in terms of a particular language, even if the language is imaginary!

Otherwise it can be either a vowel or a consonant, whichever suits the owner ;-)

Just my ideas on the matter.

[jdk]

Y is considered a vowel for those who do not own a true CVCV and trying to sell their domain for more than it really is worth.

[gawnd]

hey if miss piggy can pull it off, why can't i put lipstick on my pig too?

[Johnn]

interesting

myek.com for example, is that a cvvc or a ccvc?

CYVC

[BobDiGiTaL]

it was a song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2c6k3dJbOg

it is only a vowel when there are no other vowels in the word.

[Dorkside]

Since dry... fly... cry... gypsy...



You make a good point, I guess there's just two schools of thought on the issue.

[Credit]

Why why why you deny my lovely syllable "why", empty and lonely separately from a pretty "y"?

Reply?

[Banned: MainstreamDomains]

it was a song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2c6k3dJbOg

it is only a vowel when there are no other vowels in the word.

LMAO - how did they manage to make a song based on that?