The Letter Y
The single most confused letter of the alphabet is never quite one thing or another. These days, I can relate.
A, E, I, O, U… and sometimes Y. Sometimes. It’s not always a vowel. Some days it is, and some days it isn’t. That can’t be easy, especially when all the other letters and “units of grammatical organization” are usually as rigid as a frat boy driving through a bikini car wash.
Everybody else has their marching orders. The letter X, for example, knows to wait on the bench until a rare xylophone comes along. There’s no miscommunication, no resentment—the X simply stays hydrated, stays ready, and doesn’t question its importance to the alphabet. The letter K, similarly, has one job and one job only: to keep things hard (not unlike the fellow at the car wash, but totally unlike its flip-flopping wussbag colleague, the letter C). Participles don’t dangle, compound modifiers wouldn’t dream of showing up to the party without their pal, the hyphen, and subjects and verbs know better than to disagree. About anything. Everyone seems to know exactly where they’re supposed to be, who they’re supposed to be, and what they’re supposed to be doing.
The letter Y? Not so much.
I know the feeling.
Did it ever occur to you, English Language, that maybe the letter Y wants to be just one thing, for a change? Something less complicated, less confused, and less floundering? What the hell is the matter with me? the letter Y might want to scream. Am I a consonant, or am I a vowel? Every other damn letter gets a clear job description. A lane to follow. A place to belong. So why not me? Maybe the letter Y tosses and turns in midlife angst each night, tangling its curlicue tail in the sheets, wondering why it feels so hot one minute and so cold the next.
If it does sometimes dissolve into a state of dread and desolation—and I’m not saying it does, but if it does—then the mood probably doesn’t last for long. This is the letter Y, after all. As the previous night’s sleeplessness gives way to a peeking golden sun, I’m guessing that Y wakes to embrace an entirely opposing approach: Hey, why not take on all this uncertainty as a personal challenge? A point of pride? Who wants to be exactly like everyone else?
You can’t box me into your little…boxes, it might harrumph, wishing it had a pair of arms to fold and a chest to fold them on. You can’t label me. I’m not as simple as all that. Sure, some days I might be all vowelly, all ‘myth’ and ‘tryst’ and ‘sky.’ But that doesn’t mean that’s all I am. Sometimes I need to be ‘year,” or ‘yellow,’ or ‘yard.’ Or even ‘papaya,’ goddammit. I’m complex. I contain multitudes. And that’s okay, isn’t it?
Of course it’s okay. Okay, but not always easy. And all that chin-jutting probably gets a little tiring after a while. Sure, change is inevitable. Natural. Yadda, yadda, yadda. No doubt, the letter Y understands that. But maybe, sometimes, it wishes that all the incessant reshuffling could just…slow down. Just a bit. Chances are, it had become happily settled into being a vowel. Chances are, it loved vowelling. And then, suddenly, it gets yanked by the collar into a new and slightly terrifying stage of life: “Consonants needed! Let’s go, Y! You’re up! No more dawdling!”
Don’t panic, the letter Y tells itself. This will probably work out fine. And after all, it’s not like I have a choice. ‘Spy’ and ‘shy’ and ‘wry’ were lovely—wonderful, even—but they’re in the past. Now, it’s time to look to the future, to ‘yak’ and ‘yarn’ and ‘yawn.’ And maybe a little ‘coyote’ and ‘teriyaki,’ too. That could be interesting, right? Maybe it could even be great.
Right?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. And sometimes no.
T.M. Blanchet is the author of Herrick’s End, Herrick’s Lie, and Herrick’s Key (The Neath Trilogy) from Tiny Fox Press. She’s also the producer and host of A Mighty Blaze Podcast and the founder of Operation Delta Dog: Service Dogs for Veterans.
The Neath Trilogy from Tiny Fox Press < Get your copies here!
Operation Delta Dog: Service Dogs for Veterans < Learn more here!
A Mighty Blaze Podcast < Great author interviews here!