Editing Upsilon (section)

==Correspondence with Latin Y==
[[File:Y-like European letters.svg|thumb|[[U (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic '''У''']], [[Y|Latin '''Y''']] and Greek '''Υ''' (upsilon) and '''ϒ''' (hooked upsilon) in [[w:GNU FreeFont|FreeSerif]] – one of the few typefaces that distinguish between the Latin and the Greek form.]]

The usage of [[Y]] in Latin dates back to the first century BC. It was used to transcribe loanwords from Greek, so it was not a native sound of Latin and was usually pronounced {{IPA|/u/}} or {{IPA|/i/}}. The latter pronunciation was the most common in the Classical period and was used mostly by uneducated people. The [[Roman Emperor]] [[Claudius]] proposed introducing a [[Claudian letters|new letter]] into the [[Latin alphabet]] to transcribe the so-called {{lang|la|sonus medius}} (a short vowel before labial consonants), but in inscriptions, the new letter was sometimes used for Greek upsilon instead.

Four letters of the [[Latin alphabet]] arose from it: and [[U]], [[Y]] and, much later, [[V]] and [[W]]. In the [[Cyrillic script]], the letters [[U (Cyrillic)|U]] (У, у) and {{lang|ru-Latn|[[izhitsa]]}} (Ѵ, ѵ) arose from it.

In some languages, including [[German language|German]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], the name ''upsilon'' ({{lang|de|Ypsilon}} in German, {{lang|pt|ípsilon}} in Portuguese) is used to refer to the Latin letter '''Y''' as well as the Greek letter.  In some other languages, the (Latin) Y is referred to as a "Greek I" ({{lang|es|i griega}} in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], {{lang|fr|i grec}} in [[French language|French]]), also noting its Greek origin.