I’m having trouble seeing the difference between the e stroke and the small loop that represents ye (in Simplified). Am I right in believing “year” and “yesterday” begin with e, while “yes” and “yeast” begin with the ye loop?
In yo- words like yacht, yoga, yolk (in the Simplified dictionary) the first stroke looks very elliptical like the ye- loop but according to theory it must be the e stroke. “Before o and oo, y is expressed by the small circle, as y is pronounced e.” Is it just really hard to make the e perfectly round when you’re writing e-o?
It seems like it would be hard to make this distinction when writing at speed.
Yes, you are right. That's why "year" and "yesterday" are brief forms in Simplified: they don't have the loop.
For "yo", I think you're splitting hairs with the rule. The take-home message is that you don't need to write the y in yo as a loop: an e followed by the hook is all that is needed. If in the end the circle looks like a loop, it is unintended.
I should have clarified that yesterday is also a brief form because half of the word is not written!
Incidentally, in Series 90 and in Centennial, the circle is always used for the ya- and ye- sounds. The authors got rid of the loop. So "east" and "yeast" are written exactly the same.
Harking back to Anniversary. 🙂
Thanks Carlos! I appreciate the response.
Random data: In the 1888 edition, "year" was written e-e-r (page 15). In the 1893 edition "yell" was written e-e-l (page 17) and Gregg wrote "…it is not necessary to burden the system with special signs for W and Y."
Also in the 1893 edition, a loop is used to represent the word "he" (page 27 and 52).
The ya and ye loops appear on page 13 of the 1898 manual.