Letter Y is unusual because it acts like a consonant and a vowel.

When Y is in the middle or end of words or syllables, it typically acts like a vowel.

For now, we are going to focus on its closed, short vowel sound: /ĭ/, /ĭ/, /ĭ/, myth.

Letter Y is unusual because it acts like a consonant and a vowel. Words that use the letter “Y” for vowel-sounds often come from the Greek letter “upsilon” (𝚼). The  𝚼 letter started as a consonant sound as in “yak”, and then was used for the /ē/ sound, as in “lady”. Over time it evolved to also say the long vowel sound in “spy” and later, the short sound used in “myth”.