Everything about Upsilon Letter totally explained
Upsilon (uppercase
Υ, lowercase
υ; ) is the 20th letter of the
Greek alphabet. In the system of
Greek numerals it has a value of 400. It is derived from the
Phoenician waw.
In early Greek it was pronounced like English
oo, . In
Classical Greek, it was pronounced like French
u or German
ü, — a sound that isn't found in most dialects of
English. In
Modern Greek it's pronounced like continental
i or English
ee,, and in diphthongs, [f] or [v]. In ancient Greek it occurred in both long and short versions, but this distinction has been lost in Modern Greek.
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 which used a
sibilant instead; this sibilant wasn't 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: for instance after alpha or epsilon it's pronounced [f] or [v].
The
Roman Emperor Claudius proposed introducing a
new letter into the
Latin alphabet to approximate the sound of upsilon, but in due course the letter Y was adopted instead.
The name of the letter was originally just υ. It changed to υ ψιλόν, (
u psilon, meaning 'simple u') to distinguish it from οι, which had come to have the same [y] pronunciation. The name of the letter in modern Greek is pronounced /iː'psɪlɒn/ (in contrast to the letter Ε, which is pronounced /ɛ'psɪlɒn/). It is also rarely called "ypsilon" (/ɪ'psɪlɒn/) in English because of its resemblance to the Roman letter Y.
Four letters of the
Latin alphabet arose from it:
V and
Y and, much later,
U and
W. In the
Cyrillic alphabet, the letters
U (у) and
Izhitsa (ѵ) arose from it.
Usage
- In particle physics the capital Greek letter Υ denotes an Upsilon particle. Note that the symbol should always look like ϒ in order to avoid confusion with a Latin Y denoting the hypercharge.
- Automobile manufacturer Lancia has a model called the Ypsilon. See Lancia Ypsilon.
- In the discussion of spatial dimensions, "moving upsilon" refers to the movement from a lower dimension to a higher one.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Upsilon Letter'.
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