The name of the letter was originally just "υ" (y; also called hy, hence "hyoid", meaning "shaped like the letter υ"), but the name changed to "υ ψιλόν" u psilon 'simple u' to distinguish it from οι, which had come to have the same [y] pronunciation.[7]
As an initial letter in Classical Greek, it always carried the rough breathing (equivalent to h) as reflected in the many Greek-derived English words, such as those that begin with hyper- and hypo-. This rough breathing was derived from an older pronunciation that used a sibilant instead; this sibilant was not lost in Latin, giving rise to such cognates as super- (for hyper-) and sub- (for hypo-).
Upsilon participated as the second element in falling diphthongs, which have subsequently developed in various ways.
Correspondence with Latin Y
Cyrillic У, Latin Y and Greek Υ and ϒ in 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 /u/ or /i/. The latter pronunciation was the most common in the Classical period and was used mostly by uneducated people. The Roman EmperorClaudius proposed introducing a new letter into the Latin alphabet to transcribe the so-called 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 (У, у) and izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ) arose from it.
In some languages, including German and Portuguese, the name upsilon (Ypsilon in German, 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" (i griega in Spanish, i grec in French), also noting its Greek origin.
Usage
In particle physics the capital Greek letter ϒ denotes an Upsilon particle. Note that the symbol should always look like in order to avoid confusion with a Latin Y denoting the hypercharge. This may be done either with a font such as FreeSerif or with the dedicated Unicode character U+03D2 ϒ.
Automobile manufacturer Lancia has a model called the Ypsilon. See Lancia Ypsilon.
Upsilon is known as Pythagoras' letter, or the Samian letter, because Pythagoras used it as an emblem of the path of virtue or vice.[13] As the Roman writer Persius wrote in Satire III:
and the letter which spreads out into Pythagorean branches has pointed out to you the steep path which rises on the right.[14]
Lactantius, an early Christian author (ca. 240 – ca. 320), refers to this:
For they say that the course of human life resembles the letter Y, because every one of men, when he has reached the threshold of early youth, and has arrived at the place "where the way divides itself into two parts," is in doubt, and hesitates, and does not know to which side he should rather turn himself.[15]
These characters are used only as mathematical symbols. Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters, with markup and formatting to indicate text style.
^Woodard, Roger D. (June 12, 1997). Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer: A Linguistic Interpretation of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and the Continuity of Ancient Greek Literacy. Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195355666 – via Google Books.
^Mastronarde, Donald J. (February 21, 2013). Introduction to Attic Greek. University of California Press. ISBN9780520275713 – via Google Books.
^F. Lauritzen, "Michael the Grammarian's irony about Hypsilon. A step towards reconstructing Byzantine pronunciation", Byzantinoslavica, 67 (2009)
^Mihalas and McRae (1968), Galactic Astronomy (W. H. Freeman)
^Walpole, Ronald (2017). Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers (9th ed.).
^Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. The reader's handbook of famous names in fiction, allusions, references, proverbs, plots, stories, and poems, Vol. 2, p. 956. Lippincott, 1899.
upsilon, confused, with, epsilon, this, article, about, greek, upsilon, latin, upsilon, other, uses, disambiguation, ypsilon, redirects, here, other, uses, ypsilon, disambiguation, also, uppercase, lowercase, greek, ύψιλον, ýpsilon, ˈipsilon, ypsilon, 20th, le. Not to be confused with Epsilon This article is about the Greek upsilon For the Latin upsilon see ʊ For other uses see Upsilon disambiguation Ypsilon redirects here For other uses see Ypsilon disambiguation Upsilon ˈ ʌ p s ɪ ˌ l ɒ n ˈ j uː p l en UK also j uː p ˈ s aɪ l en ʊ p l ɒ n 1 2 3 4 5 6 uppercase Y lowercase y Greek ypsilon ypsilon ˈipsilon or ypsilon ɪ p 1 is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet In the system of Greek numerals Yʹ has a value of 400 It is derived from the Phoenician waw The Greek alphabet on a black figure vessel with a V shaped upsilon Contents 1 Etymology 2 Pronunciation 3 Correspondence with Latin Y 4 Usage 4 1 Similar appearance 5 Symbolism 6 Character encodings 7 Notes 8 External linksEtymologyThe name of the letter was originally just y y also called hy hence hyoid meaning shaped like the letter y but the name changed to y psilon u psilon simple u to distinguish it from oi which had come to have the same y pronunciation 7 PronunciationIn early Attic Greek 6th century BCE it was pronounced u a close back rounded vowel like the English long o o 8 9 In Classical Greek it was pronounced y a close front rounded vowel at least until 1030 10 In Modern Greek it is pronounced i in the digraphs ay and ey as f or v and in the digraph oy as u In ancient Greek it occurred in both long and short versions but Modern Greek does not have a length distinction As an initial letter in Classical Greek it always carried the rough breathing equivalent to h as reflected in the many Greek derived English words such as those that begin with hyper and hypo This rough breathing was derived from an older pronunciation that used a sibilant instead this sibilant was not lost in Latin giving rise to such cognates as super for hyper and sub for hypo Upsilon participated as the second element in falling diphthongs which have subsequently developed in various ways Correspondence with Latin Y Cyrillic U Latin Y and Greek Y and ϒ in 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 u or 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 new letter into the Latin alphabet to transcribe the so called 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 U u and izhitsa Ѵ ѵ arose from it In some languages including German and Portuguese the name upsilon Ypsilon in German ipsilon 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 i griega in Spanish i grec in French also noting its Greek origin UsageIn particle physics the capital Greek letter ϒ denotes an Upsilon particle Note that the symbol should always look like Y displaystyle Upsilon in order to avoid confusion with a Latin Y denoting the hypercharge This may be done either with a font such as FreeSerif or with the dedicated Unicode character U 03D2 ϒ Automobile manufacturer Lancia has a model called the Ypsilon See Lancia Ypsilon In the International Phonetic Alphabet the symbol ʋ is used to represent a labiodental approximant In astrophysics and physical cosmology ϒ refers to the mass to light ratio 11 In statistics it is sometimes used instead of v or nu to indicate degrees of freedom 12 Similar appearance A similar symbol Unicode U 2648 is used for the astrological sign of Aries Symbolism Geoffroy Tory Ypsilon Upsilon is known as Pythagoras letter or the Samian letter because Pythagoras used it as an emblem of the path of virtue or vice 13 As the Roman writer Persius wrote in Satire III and the letter which spreads out into Pythagorean branches has pointed out to you the steep path which rises on the right 14 Lactantius an early Christian author ca 240 ca 320 refers to this For they say that the course of human life resembles the letter Y because every one of men when he has reached the threshold of early youth and has arrived at the place where the way divides itself into two parts is in doubt and hesitates and does not know to which side he should rather turn himself 15 Character encodingsGreek Upsilon Character information Preview Y y ϒUnicode name GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON GREEK UPSILON WITH HOOK SYMBOLEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 933 U 03A5 965 U 03C5 978 U 03D2UTF 8 206 165 CE A5 207 133 CF 85 207 146 CF 92Numeric character reference amp 933 wbr amp x3A5 wbr amp 965 wbr amp x3C5 wbr amp 978 wbr amp x3D2 wbr Named character reference amp Upsilon amp upsi amp upsilon amp Upsi amp upsih DOS Greek 148 94 172 ACDOS Greek 2 209 D1 239 EFWindows 1253 213 D5 245 F5TeX Upsilon upsilon 16 Coptic Ua Character information Preview Ⲩ ⲩUnicode name COPTIC CAPITAL LETTER UA COPTIC SMALL LETTER UAEncodings decimal hex dec hexUnicode 11432 U 2CA8 11433 U 2CA9UTF 8 226 178 168 E2 B2 A8 226 178 169 E2 B2 A9Numeric character reference amp 11432 wbr amp x2CA8 wbr amp 11433 wbr amp x2CA9 wbr Latin Upsilon Character information Preview Ʊ ʊ ᶷ ᵿUnicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON MODIFIER LETTER SMALL UPSILON LATIN SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH STROKEEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 433 U 01B1 650 U 028A 7607 U 1DB7 7551 U 1D7FUTF 8 198 177 C6 B1 202 138 CA 8A 225 182 183 E1 B6 B7 225 181 191 E1 B5 BFNumeric character reference amp 433 wbr amp x1B1 wbr amp 650 wbr amp x28A wbr amp 7607 wbr amp x1DB7 wbr amp 7551 wbr amp x1D7F wbr Mathematical Upsilon Character information Preview 𝚼 𝛖 𝛶 𝜐 𝜰 𝝊Unicode name MATHEMATICAL BOLDCAPITAL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL BOLDSMALL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL ITALICCAPITAL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL ITALICSMALL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALICCAPITAL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL BOLD ITALICSMALL UPSILONEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 120508 U 1D6BC 120534 U 1D6D6 120566 U 1D6F6 120592 U 1D710 120624 U 1D730 120650 U 1D74AUTF 8 240 157 154 188 F0 9D 9A BC 240 157 155 150 F0 9D 9B 96 240 157 155 182 F0 9D 9B B6 240 157 156 144 F0 9D 9C 90 240 157 156 176 F0 9D 9C B0 240 157 157 138 F0 9D 9D 8AUTF 16 55349 57020 D835 DEBC 55349 57046 D835 DED6 55349 57078 D835 DEF6 55349 57104 D835 DF10 55349 57136 D835 DF30 55349 57162 D835 DF4ANumeric character reference amp 120508 wbr amp x1D6BC wbr amp 120534 wbr amp x1D6D6 wbr amp 120566 wbr amp x1D6F6 wbr amp 120592 wbr amp x1D710 wbr amp 120624 wbr amp x1D730 wbr amp 120650 wbr amp x1D74A wbr Character information Preview 𝝪 𝞄 𝞤 𝞾Unicode name MATHEMATICAL SANS SERIFBOLD CAPITAL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL SANS SERIFBOLD SMALL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL SANS SERIFBOLD ITALIC CAPITAL UPSILON MATHEMATICAL SANS SERIFBOLD ITALIC SMALL UPSILONEncodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hexUnicode 120682 U 1D76A 120708 U 1D784 120740 U 1D7A4 120766 U 1D7BEUTF 8 240 157 157 170 F0 9D 9D AA 240 157 158 132 F0 9D 9E 84 240 157 158 164 F0 9D 9E A4 240 157 158 190 F0 9D 9E BEUTF 16 55349 57194 D835 DF6A 55349 57220 D835 DF84 55349 57252 D835 DFA4 55349 57278 D835 DFBENumeric character reference amp 120682 wbr amp x1D76A wbr amp 120708 wbr amp x1D784 wbr amp 120740 wbr amp x1D7A4 wbr amp 120766 wbr amp x1D7BE wbr These characters are used only as mathematical symbols Stylized Greek text should be encoded using the normal Greek letters with markup and formatting to indicate text style Notes a b upsilon Chambers Dictionary 9th ed Chambers 2003 ISBN 0 550 10105 5 upsilon Collins English Dictionary 13th ed HarperCollins 2018 ISBN 978 0 008 28437 4 Upsilon Merriam Webster Dictionary Retrieved 2016 01 22 Upsilon Lexico UK English Dictionary Oxford University Press Archived from the original on 2019 12 21 upsilon Dictionary com Unabridged Online n d Retrieved 2016 01 22 upsilon Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required W Sidney Allen Vox Graeca 3rd ed Cambridge 1987 p 69 Woodard Roger D June 12 1997 Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer A Linguistic Interpretation of the Origin of the Greek Alphabet and the Continuity of Ancient Greek Literacy Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195355666 via Google Books Mastronarde Donald J February 21 2013 Introduction to Attic Greek University of California Press ISBN 9780520275713 via Google Books F Lauritzen Michael the Grammarian s irony about Hypsilon A step towards reconstructing Byzantine pronunciation Byzantinoslavica 67 2009 Mihalas and McRae 1968 Galactic Astronomy W H Freeman Walpole Ronald 2017 Probability and Statistics for Scientists and Engineers 9th ed Brewer Ebenezer Cobham The reader s handbook of famous names in fiction allusions references proverbs plots stories and poems Vol 2 p 956 Lippincott 1899 Persius 1920 Satires Lactatius The Divine Institutes pp Book VI Chapter III Unicode Code Charts Greek and Coptic Range 0370 03FF External links Look up Y or y in Wiktionary the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has media related to Upsilon letter Merrifield Michael 2009 Y Mass to Light Ratio Sixty Symbols Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Upsilon amp oldid 1108040049, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
