wy

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See also: Wy, WY, wy-, -wy, .wy, and ŵy

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

wy (plural wies)

  1. The name of the letter Y.
    • 1856, Goold Brown, The First Lines of English Grammar, page 10:
      The names of the letters, as now commonly spoken and written in English, are A, Bee, Cee, Dee, E, Eff, Gee, Aitch, I, Jay, Kay, Ell, Em, En, O, Pee, Kue, Ar, Ess, Tee, U, Vee, Double-u, Ex, Wy, Zee.

Translations[edit]

name of the letter Y, y — see wye

Anagrams[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /vəi/
  • Audio(file)

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. Obsolete form of ons.

Lower Sorbian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *vy, from Proto-Indo-European *wos.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

wy pl

  1. you (plural and formal)

Declension[edit]

Declension of the second-person pronouns
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative ty wej wy
Genitive śi
tebje¹ 		waju was
Dative śi
tebje¹ 		wama wam
Accusative śi
tebje¹ 		waju was
Instrumental tobu wama wami
Locative tebje wama was
Possessive determiner twój waju waš

¹ Both śi and tebje are used when no preposition precedes, but after a preposition only tebje is used.

Mfumte[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA(key): /ɥ/

Letter[edit]

wy (upper case Wy)

  1. A letter of the Mfumte alphabet.

Old Polish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vy. First attested in the 14th century.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. plural second person pronoun; you
  2. polite singular second person pronoun; you

Declension[edit]

Declension of wy
plural dual
nominative wy —
genitive was —
dative wam wama
accusative was —
instrumental wami wama
locative was —
vocative wy —

Descendants[edit]

  • Masurian: wi
  • Polish: wy
  • Silesian: wy

References[edit]

Polish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Old Polish wy.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. plural second person pronoun; you
  2. (dated) polite singular second person pronoun; you
    Synonyms: (for men) pan, (for women) pani

Declension[edit]

Declension of wy
plural
nominative wy
genitive was
dative wam
accusative was
instrumental wami
locative was
vocative wy

Trivia[edit]

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), wy is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 2 times in scientific texts, 3 times in news, 11 times in essays, 64 times in fiction, and 199 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 279 times, making it the 182nd most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “wy”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language]‎[1] (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 687

Further reading[edit]

  • wy in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • wy in Polish dictionaries at PWN
  • Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “wy”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
  • Renata Bronikowska (22.06.2021) “WY”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
  • Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎[2]
  • Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861‎[3]
  • J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1919), “wy”, in Słownik języka polskiego‎[4] (in Polish), volume 7, Warsaw, page 791

Silesian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈvɨ/
  • Rhymes: -ɨ
  • Syllabification: wy

Etymology 1[edit]

Inherited from Old Polish wy.

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. plural second person pronoun; you
Declension[edit]
Declension of wy
plural
nominative wy
genitive wŏs, was
dative wōm, wam
accusative wŏs, was
instrumental wami
locative wŏs, was

Etymology 2[edit]

Preposition[edit]

wy

  1. Alternative form of w, used mostly before words that begin with consonant clusters

Further reading[edit]

  • wy in silling.org

Upper Sorbian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Slavic *vy, from Proto-Indo-European *wos.

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. you (second-person plural)

Declension[edit]

Upper Sorbian personal pronouns
First person pronouns
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative ja mój my
Genitive mje
(after preposition) mnje 		naju nas
Dative mi
(after preposition) mni 		namaj nam
Accusative mje
(after preposition) mnje 		naju nas
Instrumental mnu namaj nami
Locative mni nas
Second person pronouns
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative ty wój wy
Genitive će
(after preposition) tebje 		waju was
Dative ći
(after preposition) tebi 		wamaj wam
Accusative će
(after preposition) tebje 		waju was
Instrumental tobu wamaj wami
Locative tebi was
Third person pronouns
Masculine singular Feminine singular Neuter singular Dual virile Dual nonvirile Plural virile Plural nonvirile
Nominative wón wona wono wonaj wonej woni wone
Genitive jeho
(after preposition) njeho 		jeje
(after preposition) njeje 		jeho
(after preposition) njeho 		jeju jich
(after preposition) nich
Dative jemu
(after preposition) njemu 		jej
(after preposition) njej 		jemu
(after preposition) njemu 		jimaj
(after preposition) nimaj 		jim
(after preposition) nim
Accusative jón
(after preposition) njón
(animate) jeho
(animate after preposition) njeho 		ju
(after preposition) nju 		jo, je
(after preposition) njo, nje 		jeju
(after preposition) njeju 		jej
(after preposition) njej 		jich
(after preposition) nich 		je
(after preposition) nje
Instrumental nim njej nim nimaj nimi
Locative nich

Further reading[edit]

  • “wy” in Soblex

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Welsh wy, from Old Welsh ui, from Proto-Celtic *āwyom, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

wy m (plural wyau)

  1. egg

Derived terms[edit]

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
wy unchanged unchanged hwy
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References[edit]

  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “wy”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Frisian wī, from Proto-West Germanic *wiʀ, from Proto-Germanic *wīz, from Proto-Indo-European *wéy-, plural of *éǵh₂.

Pronunciation[edit]

Pronoun[edit]

wy

  1. we (first-person plural nominative pronoun)

Inflection[edit]

West Frisian personal pronouns
Number Person Nominative Objective Possessive
Normal Reflexive Determiner Pronoun
Singular First ik my mysels myn mines
Second Informal do/dû1 dy dysels dyn dines
Formal jo jo josels jo jowes
Third Masculine hy him himsels syn sines
Feminine sy/hja1 har harsels har harres
Neuter it it himsels syn sines
Plural First wy ús ússels ús uzes
Second jim(me) jim(me) jimsels/jinsels jim(me) jimmes
Third sy/hja1 har(ren) harsels har(ren) harres
1. Now mostly archaic and unused

Further reading[edit]

  • “wy”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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