You may well have found good evidence backing your claim, but I categorically refuse to look at anything that could potentially start to undermine my irrational beliefs. Instead, I will retreat further into my shell by only recognizing Y as either a vowel or semi-vowel. The concept of Y as a consonant be banished!

Call me obstinate, call me an ideologue, call me an obstinate ideologue, or call me a twat. You probably wouldn't be too far off with any of these characterizations, but one thing is for sure, you Y-Consonanters have had your day!

Valiant you may be, but I'm afaid your cause is lost as I have destiny on my side seeing as it can be no coincidence that VICTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! is spelled with a vowel Y

@196alex, you've crossed an over zealous English teacher, so you've found yourself on the business end of a pedant bomb. Hunker down...

English/Americans are gonna be here going "why is y a vowel"

I'm not sure you should lump Americans into this group... I've never had any qualms thinking of Y as a vowel, and actually have a harder time seeing it as a consonant. Probably because, even using the structural definition (i.e where the Y falls in a word), most occurences in English are categorized as vowels (I'm unaware of a definition which extends beyond mere assertion that has most English occurences of Y being categorized as a consonant).

However, let's be honest, nobody cares about that dross... It's come down to a battle of whose schoolhouse rote will win the day. So, don't give up, and fight to the death we shall! Arbitrary definitions must be defended!

It is sometimes a vowel, and mostly a consonant.

Trying to not look through the keyhole of one specific language, a serious, honest question: out of all distinct languages which recognize the letter Y, how many of them considers it as a vowel, how many as a consonant, and how many as "it depends"? Has anyone any idea here?

I can guarantee you that every Polish person gets utterly confused when Y is not considered a vowel in a kata. For such user, Y is a vowel, always, period.

I also dont understand what exactly is the problem here. Y being a vowel or not is ambiguous and not well defined in general. Task clearly, unambiguously specifies this, comforming to one of possible, well known interpretations. What is the problem then?

The hordes of complaints will only continue to rise mark my words.

Meanwhile you just proved that y can be a vowel by your Y use count there. You just done the opposite of rising mark of your words.

You still wanna stand on your perspective, that's fine. Let's just accept that both have some valid point and should stop debating about this. Different people comes from different cultures.

In french, Y is a vowel. Meanwhile based on what you said, english mostly doesn't consider it as one. Maybe the author comes from french or countries that have similar opinion about Y being a vowel? We never know. Codewars is not only for english users after all.

While your English credentials and provided reference are surely impeccable, what classifies Y alternately as a vowel and a consonant here is likely not a matter of English or game shows, rather a matter of phonology (i.e. how the sound is produced in your mouth). Basically, consonants show significant restriction of airflow by the tongue while vowels allow for free flowing airflow. In this light, classifying Y as a consonant could be seen as a bit dubious, since it generally is either a vowel or a semi-vowel.

Small sample, but just for fun...

Are we speaking english here? What do you mean how do I know it's sometimes a vowel and mostly a consonant? I'm english back to the damn romans invading britain, I barely speak a second language because I decided to learn german as a hobby. I might not be an english student, but I'm reasonably familiar with english as a language and the usage of letters. For example, in countdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOYv1qicEcc - Ignoring the 7 million to 1 odds of her spelling her name, note the Y comes from the consonants?

Counts from your quote:

Y as vowel = 3

Y as consonant (semi-vowel) = 1

Y as letter = 1

The evidence undelying your assertion is lacking.

1. reasonably familiar with english as a language
2. a game show tile

It is sometimes a vowel, and mostly a consonant.

How do you know?

The sorting criteria has been removed in Python and now follows iteration order

In English, Y is almost always a vowel, in fact, rarely is it used as a consonant. This was quite a surprise when I made this discovery...

I hope your day 10 months ago was good and I hope this turns out to also be a good day for you and everyone else.

thing is, endding up with this is not that simple. It requires a few insights/realizations about the problem you're actually facing (see explanations there)

sorry about that... x)

I have a tendency to over-explain :-)

It looks like the most common rating from the reviewers so far is 6kyu.

Yeah, I might have underestimated the difficulty, particularly for non-chessplayers.