Magda ? wrote:

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:45:44 +0100, in rec.travel.europe,
(chancellor of the duchy of besses o'
th' barn and prestwich tesco) arranged some electrons, so they looked like
this :
[]
... It's not usually, in English. It's technically a glide, or a semivowel.
... Another example of one is "w" as in weekend, and you don't say or write
... "an weekend" in English either.

Given that W is *not* a vowel, no, I don't.

Nor is Y- as I wrote, it's a glide- a semivowel. Y and W (though less
often in the case of W) are both semivowels. They can function as both,
which doesn't mean they are both, and certainly not all the time. You
wouldn't say "an yellow box" either- well, you could, but it would be
incorrect. There are hardly any words in English where, when a word
begins with a "y" it functions as a vowel.

... And E *looks* like a vowel, too !
...
... As was explained already, it's the sound that is important.

Yes, Y sounds like a vowel.

Not in the word "Yellow" it doesn't, just as the sound at the beginning
of the word "Europe" is not a vowel either. Most english words that
begin with Y don't have it sound like a vowel. The ones that do are
often technical terms (medicine, chemistry)- I can't think of any
offhand- but I'm sure there are plenty.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk