XXV. OF THE LETTER Y.
Y, as a consonant, has the sound heard at the beginning of yarn, young, youth; being rather less vocal than the feeble sound of i, or of the vowel y, and serving merely to modify that of a succeeding vowel, with which it is quickly united. Y, as a vowel, has the same sounds as i:—
1. The open, long, full, or primal y; as in cry, crying, thyme, cycle.
2. The close, curt, short, or stopped y; as in system, symptom, cynic.
3. The feeble or faint y, accentless; (like open e feeble;) as in cymar, cycloidal, mercy.
The vowels i and y have, in general, exactly the same sound under similar circumstances, and, in forming derivatives, we often change one for the other: as in city, cities; tie, tying; easy, easily.
Y, before a vowel heard in the same syllable, is reckoned a consonant; we have, therefore, no diphthongs or triphthongs commencing with this letter.