Υ

Ipsilon in a capital letter Etymologicum Magnum (1499).

Ípsilon(according to the RAE since 1992) or ypsilon (in capital letters Υ, lowercase υ; call in ancient Greek ὖ û /ŷː/, Modern Greek ύψιλον ýpsilon /ˈi.psi.lon/, lit. 'and simple') is the twentieth letter of the Greek alphabet. In classical ancient Greek it was pronounced [y], like u in French or ü in German. In modern Greek it is pronounced [i], except in some diphthongs where it is pronounced as [f] (eg ελευθερία, elefthería) or [v] (eg ευαγγέλιον evaggélion).

It is the origin of two letters of the Latin alphabet: the letter Y ("Greek i") as well as the letter V.

In the Greek numeral system it has a value of 400 (Υʹ).

History

Ípsilon evolved from the Phoenician letter waw 𐤅, from which it also evolved digamma (ϝ). Ípsilon was used in all epicoric Greek alphabets. Its shape was relatively similar in them. Originally the most common shape was a vertical line, branched by an upward pointing line. However, in some local alphabets, such as those of Phocis, Aegina, Megara, Aitolia and Epirus, as well as in some settlements in Asia Minor, Ípsilon resembled the current letter V of the Latin alphabet. Later, the letter evolved to its current form.

Name

The name of the letter was originally just "y" (, sometimes transliterated "hy", hence "hyoid", meaning "shaped like the letter υ"), but the name was changed to y psilon ("υ ψιλόν", meaning y simple) to distinguish it from ⟨οι⟩, which had come to have the same pronunciation [y]

In Spanish, the spelling «ýpsilon» was used in the past, which has the drawback of using an accent on the letter y. In French, the letter is called upsilon, since the U in this language represents a closed front rounded vowel (/y/) and this is adequate to represent the ancient Greek sound of the letter. This writing was inherited by English, despite the fact that this language does not pronounce the vowel U that way, which results in the pronunciation /ʌpˈsaɪlən/ (apsáilon), very distorted compared to Greek. In Spanish the name of the letter should be written as "ipsilon" and the words that contain it are transcribed with Latin i, which reflects the modern Greek sound of the letter.

Epigraphic variants

In archaic epigraphic sources the following variants appear:

Use

In Greek

In early Attic Greek (VI century BCE), it was pronounced [u] (a vowel closed back rounded vowel like the u for "donkey"). In Classical Greek, it was pronounced [y] (a closed front rounded vowel), at least until 1030. Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA or IPA)" class="IPA">i; in the digraphs αυ and ευ, such as [f] or [v]. In ancient Greek, it could represent both long and short sounds, but in modern Greek there is no distinction in length.

As an initial letter in classical Greek, it was always harsh in spirit (equivalent to English h) as reflected in many Greek-derived English words, such as those beginning with hyper- and hypo-. This harsh breath derives from an older pronunciation that used a sibilant consonant instead; this sibilant was not lost in Latin, giving rise to cognates such as super- (for hyper-) and sub- (for hypo -).

Ípsilon participated as the second element in descending diphthongs, which have subsequently developed in various ways.

As a symbol

Geoffroy Tory Ypsilon

Upsilon is known as the Pythagoras letter, or the Samian letter, because Pythagoras used it as an emblem of the path of virtue or vice. As the Roman writer Persius wrote in Satire III:

and the lyrics that extends in Pythagorean branches have pointed to you the steep path that goes up to the right. [13]

Lactantius, an early Christian author (c. 240 - 320), explained:

Because they say that the course of human life resembles the letter Y, because every man, when he has reached the threshold of the first youth, and has reached the place "where the road is divided into two parts", is in doubt, and he hesitates and does not know which side he should turn [14].

• In the Greek numeration system it has the value of 400 (how much).
• In particle physics, the Greek capital letter Y denotes an Iberian month, although the symbol should always be seen as YES YES {displaystyle ,Upsilon } and not as a normal ípsilon to avoid confusion with a Latin Y that denotes hyperload. This can be done with a source like FreeSerif or with the specific Unicode character U+03D2 Y.
• The Lancia car manufacturer has a model called Ypsilon. See Lancia Ypsilon.
• In the International Phontic Alphabet, the symbol , a tiny lip, is used to represent a lipdental approach.
• In astrophysics and physical cosmology, you refer to mass/light ratio.
• In statistics, it is sometimes used instead of v or to indicate degrees of freedom

Unicode

• Greek

• Copt

• Latino

• Maths