‘i latina’ vs. ‘i griego’

Learning a language is challenging and at the same time it’s fun to constantly become aware of little quirks and details, sometimes after years of studying and speaking the language. One of these quirks is the explanation of what certain letters are called in Spanish. As in most languages, learning the alphabet is crucial. In Spanish it is especially important as the majority of the letters, especially vowels, always have the same pronunciation (unlike English). For example the name and sound of the letter are the same. There are a few instances, however, where two letters make the same sound. When spelling a word or name orally, one needs a way to specify which letter is used.

In last month’s language blog, we explained how in Spanish the letters ‘v’ and ‘b’ have the same phonetic sound. When we spell things out, we need to clarify which letters we’re using. If you missed this blog, check it out here. 

In addition to the exception of the same sounding ‘b’ and ‘v’ consonants, the vowels ‘i’ and ‘y’ also have the same sound /ee/ and need to be clarified when words are spelled out. Throughout Latin America and Spain, we usually define the letters ‘i’ and ‘y’ by specifying the ‘i’ as ‘i latina’ /ee lah teen ah/ and the ‘y’ as ‘i griega’ /ee gree ey gah/. These literally translate to ‘Latin i’ and ‘Greek i’. 

For example, if we need to spell out the word ‘icy’, we would need to say:

i latina-ce-i griega

Many people do not know that the letter ‘y’ is actually described  as ‘Greek i’. Instead they think the letter y is  called ‘igriega’ (a one word name for that letter).

Over the past decade, the ‘masters’ of proper Spanish at the Real Academia Española, have been encouraging the letter ‘y’ to be called ‘ye’ rather than ‘i griega’. Although opinions are mixed about making this change, in Mexico one will still hear ‘i griega’ used much more often than ‘ye’. 

According to the webpage Etimologías de Chile, the letter ‘y’ or i griega, was only used in Spanish when words were translated from Greek. They state that over time, the Spaniards started using the letter ‘y’ to represent the same sound as  an ‘i’ even though the Greeks pronounced it like /you/. Then, in 1726, the same Real Academia Espanola claimed that the letter ‘y’ could only be used as a consonant. This didn’t stick and the vowel ‘y’ simply was named ‘i griega’. 

Would you like to learn more about Spanish grammar and its uses in real-life conversation? Check out our online Spanish classes and our immersion programs or feel free to contact us directly by sending an email to say@naatikmexico.org.