Y, y, a Greek letter introduced at a late period for words borrowed from the Greek, the place of the Greek *u being previously filled by U (i. e. V, which graphically originated from *u; v. the letters U and V). Thus, according to the express testimony of Cicero (Or. 48, 160), Ennius always wrote Burrus for Pyrrhus, and Bruges for Phryges; and so the words which were identical in Greek and Latin in the oldest period of the language have either preserved u where the Greek has u, as bucina and buka/nh, cubus and ku/bos, fuga and fugh/, mus and mu=s et saep.; or this u has given place to i, as in lacrima, formerly lacruma, = da/kruma. Sometimes, also, o took the place of the u; cf. mola and mu/lh, sorex and u(/rac, folium and fu/llon, and, shortening a long vowel, ancŏra and a)/gkura, like lacrĭma and da/kru=ma. In Cicero's time y seems to have been already in use; but its application was restricted to foreign words, and hence the spellings Sylla, Tybris, pyrum, satyra, etc., are to be rejected.
