Y the twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet, one of four variants (u, v, w, y) which have been developed out of one Greek symbol. It was taken into the Roman alphabet as a form distinct from V in the 1st century B.C., when it was desired to represent the sound of the Greek υ more accurately than could be done by the ordinary Roman alphabet. Many Greek words had been borrowed from Greek long before this and pronounced like genuine Latin words. Thus the proper name Πύρρος was borrowed as Burrus, Φρύγες as Bruges. But with the growth of literary knowledge this was felt to be a very inexact representation of the Greek sounds, and the words were respelt as Pyrrhus and Phryges. The philosopher Pythagoras is said to have regarded this letter as a symbol of human life (Servius, on Virgil, Aeneid vi. 136). To this there are various references in the Roman poets. Two lines of Persius (iii. 56–57) seem to throw some light upon the particular form of Y intended:
“Et tibi quae Samios dlduxit littera ramos:
surgentem dextro monstravit limite callem.”
These lines appear to imply that the letter took the form y,
which can only be one of the oldest forms (
) written from right
to left. The straight road is the difficult, the deviating line is
the easier path of vice. Anglo-Saxon took over the Roman Y
with its Roman value of the “modified u” (ü), and employed it
accordingly for the sound which arose from a u sound under the
influence of an i in the following syllable: fyllan, “fill,” cp. Gothic
fulljan, mus, “mouse,” plural mūs, from an earlier lost mūsis.
The y sounds were often confused with i, whence, in modern
English, mice.
The vowel use was the only use of the old symbol. The consonant Y is of a different origin. The early English g (always hard as in gig) was palatalized before e and i sounds into a consonant i (i̯) or y, which was written in Middle English with the symbol ȝ. With this letter also was written the original consonant i (i̯), which appears in Latin as i (j) in iugum, iuvencus. This Latin sound seems, at least initially, to have represented two originally separate sounds, for Greek represents the first sound of iugum by ζ (ζυγόν) while in other words it represents a i̯ (y) of other languages by the “rough breathing” (h or ‛): ἁγνός, “holy,” is the same word as the Sanskrit yajnas. The English words that correspond etymologically to iugum and iuvencus are “yoke” and “young.” In Northern English the symbol ȝ survived longer than in the southern part of the island, and in Scottish documents of the 16th century was confused with z. From this cause various Scottish names that were never pronounced with z are so spelt, as Menzies (Mengies), Dalziel, Cadzow. In others like Mackenzie, z is now universally pronounced, though as late as the middle of the 18th century Lord Karnes declared that to hear Mackenzie pronounced with a z turned his stomach. (P. Gi.)
YABLONOI, or Yablonovoi (“Apple Mountains,” known to the Mongols as Dynze-daban), a range of E. Siberia, stretching N.E. from near the sources of the river Kerulen (N.E. of Urga in N. Mongolia) to the bend of the river Olekma in 56° N., and forming the S.E. border ridge of the upper terrace of the great plateau of Central and E. Asia. Its summits reach altitudes of 5000–6000 ft., culminating in Mount Sokhondo (8040 ft.) near the Transbaikal-Mongolia frontier. The range serves as the water-parting between the streams which flow to the Pacific and those which flow to the Arctic Ocean, and is a dividing line between the Siberian and the Daurian flora. The passes have altitudes of 2000—3500 ft. The range is a continuation of the Kentei Mountains of Mongolia, but is not orographically connected with the Stanovoi Mountains, farther to the N.E., though the names Yablonoi and Stanovoi are commonly used alternatively. The latter are the S.E. border-range of the lower terrace and are connected with the Great Khingan Mountains.
YACHOW-FU, a prefectural city in the province of Sze-ch‛uen, China, in 30° N., 103° E.; pop. about 40,000. It is situated in a valley on the banks of the river Ya, where tea is grown, The town owes its importance to the fact that it stands at the parting of the tea and tobacco trade route to Tibet via Tachien-lu and the cotton trade route to west Yun-nan via Ningyuen-Fu. The city wall measures 2 m. in circumference, and is pierced by four gates. Yachow-Fu is first mentioned during the Chow dynasty (1122–255 B.C.).
YACHTING, the sport of racing in yachts[1] and boats with sails, and also the pastime of cruising for pleasure in sailing steam or motor vessels. Yacht racing dates from the beginning of the 19th century; for, although there were sailing yachts long before, they were but few, and belonged exclusively to princes and other illustrious personages. For instance, in the Anglo-Saxon period Athelstan had presented to him by the king of Norway a magnificent royal vessel, the sails of which were purple and the head and deck wrought with gold, apparently a kind of state barge. Elizabeth had one, and so has every English sovereign since. During her reign a pleasure ship was built (1588) at Cowes (Isle of Wight), so that the association of that place with the sport goes back a very long time. In 1660 Charles II. was presented by the Dutch with a yacht named the “Mary,” until which time the word “yacht” was unknown in England. The Merrie Monarch was fond of sailing, for he designed a yacht of 25 tons called the “Jamie,” built at Lambeth in 1662, as well as several others later on. In that year the “Jamie” was matched for £100 against a small Dutch yacht, under the duke of York, from Greenwich to Gravesend and back, and beat her, the king steering part of the time—apparently the first record of a yacht match and of an amateur helmsman. Mr Arthur H. Clark, in his History of Yachting (1904), traces the history of pleasure craft from 1600 to 1815, and gives an interesting illustrated account of the yachts belonging to Charles II.
The first authentic record of a sailing club is in 1720, when the Cork Harbour Water Club, now known as the Royal Cork Yacht Club, was established in Ireland, but the yachts were small. Maitland, in his History of London (1739) mentions sailing and rowing on the Thames as among the amusements then indulged in; and Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes (1801), says that the Cumberland Society, consisting of gentlemen partial to this pastime, gave yearly a silver cup to be sailed for in the vicinity of London. The boats usually started from Blackfriars Bridge, went up the Thames to Putney, and returned to Vauxhall, being, no doubt, mere sailing boats and not yachts or decked vessels. From the middle to the end of the 18th century yachting developed very slowly: although matches were sailed at Cowes as far back as 1780, very few yachts of any size, say 35 tons, existed in 1800 there or elsewhere. In 1812 the Royal Yacht Squadron was established by fifty yacht-owners at Cowes and was called the Yacht Club, altered to the Royal Yacht Club in 1820; but no regular regatta was held there until some years later. The yachts of the time were built of heavy materials, like the revenue cutters, full in the fore body and fine aft; but it was soon discovered that their timbers and scantlings were unnecessarily strong, and they were made much lighter. It was also found that the single-masted cutter was more weatherly than the brigs and schooners of the time, and the former rig was adopted for racing, and, as there was no time allowance for difference of size, they were all built of considerable dimensions.
Early English Yachts.—Among the earliest of which there is any record were the “Pearl,” 95 tons, built by Sainty at Wyvenhoe near Colchester in 1820, for the marquess of Anglesey, and the “Arrow,” 84 tons, originally 61 ft. 9½ in. long and 18 ft. 5¼ in. beam, built by Joseph Weld in 1822, which for many years remained extant as a racing yacht, having been rebuilt and
- ↑ The English word “yacht” is the Dutch jacht, jagt, from jachten, “to hurry,” “to hunt.” See also Ship and Shipbuilding.
