Y par Nicolas Pommier
Guest: Nicolas Pommier
Enregistré : vendredi 30 janvier 2026, en ligne
Diffusé : lundi 16 février 2026
Langue d’enregistrement : Français
Mots clés
Lettre Y, typographie, étymologie, symbolisme, culture, génétique, design, histoire, communication, art.
Sommaire
Cette conversation explore la pluralité du Y, non seulement comme lettre, mais comme glyphe et schéma formel. Nicolas Pommier y mobilise ses recherches pour retracer son évolution historique, typographique et sémantique, de l’étymologie aux usages contemporains. Le Y y apparaît tour à tour comme structure graphique, symbole culturel et matrice conceptuelle; investi dans des champs aussi divers que la génétique, l’art, le design et la culture visuelle. L’échange souligne sa puissance figurative : embranchement, choix, vertu, identité.
Chapitres
00:00 Bienvenu.e dans Sign(e)s
00:40 Présentation de l’invité
03:02 L’aboutissement de plusieurs années de recherche
05:37 L’évolution du système d’écriture du « Y »
08:23 Le Y vitruvien
14:39 Interprétations modernistes
19:05 Le symbolisme chrétien dans l’art médiéval
26:42 La génétique et le chromosome Y
37:27 Le Y dans la culture contemporaine
49:26 Un petit supplément de Y
Nicolas Pommier est actuellement doctorant contractuel à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, rattaché au laboratoire LaTTiCe (CNRS, ENS, Sorbonne Nouvelle), où il mène un projet de thèse sur la typologie des propositions subordonnées relatives sous la direction de Pollet Samvelian et Pascal Amsili. Passionné par la question du signe et du sens, aussi bien dans ses dimensions linguistiques que visuelles et scripturales, il a d’abord suivi une formation en design graphique à l’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon et à l’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs à Paris (https://www.ensad.fr/fr/outre-sens), avant d’entamer en parallèle un cursus de sciences du langage à la Sorbonne Nouvelle.
Son parcours atypique l’a amené à travailler comme graphiste indépendant, à enseigner le design graphique et éditorial à l’École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon (2023-2025) ; mais aussi à effectuer de nombreux stages et missions dans divers laboratoires de recherche : en neuropsychologie cognitive (MULAW, Aix-Marseille Université), en documentation linguistique (LACITO, CNRS – Sorbonne Nouvelle), en acquisition du langage (projet RaProChe), en linguistique de corpus (CNRS – LLF) ou encore en paléographie et sociolinguistique historique (projet ANR Macintosh). Depuis 2022, il est membre du Séminaire Écritures (EA 2288 – DILTEC, Sorbonne Nouvelle), qui explore les questions liées à la littératie, au plurilinguisme et à l’interculturalité. Dans ce cadre, il développe le projet de recherche-création Linгвиstiks, entre graphisme et linguistique, qui consiste en une collection de jeux de mots plurilingues et multiscripturaux rassemblés sous forme d’un jeu de cartes. Ce projet, présenté dans plusieurs colloques internationaux — LÉEL 2023 (Aix-en-Provence), COMETRA 2024 (Inalco PLIDAM, IHECS Bruxelles) —, est exposé au musée Mundolingua (75006 Paris) depuis juin 2024 et fait l’objet d’un projet de publication (Éditions La Marelle, à paraître).
Le travail présenté ici est le fruit d’une recherche menée dans le cadre de son mémoire de master à l’École des Arts Décoratifs, sous la direction de Philippe Millot. Il s’agit d’une tentative d’exploration de la vie complexe des signes par le prisme de l’un d’entre eux : la lettre Y. Un glyphe, quelques traits ; et déjà sʼesquisse la question du sens : Pourquoi cette forme ? Dʼoù vient-elle ? Pourquoi ces sons ? Comment une lettre peut-elle sʼéchapper de son système dʼorigine pour devenir un objet symbolique voire sensible ? Peut-on dépasser la frontière historiquement tracée entre signifiant et signifié pour considérer un signe dans sa globalité ? Typographie, histoire, linguistique, poésie, sémiologie... La motivation est aussi et avant tout de croiser les disciplines, de proposer un voyage à travers les écritures et les langues.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-pommier-27715a20a/
Transcript (machine translated)
Sophia Burnett (00:09)
Welcome to Signs, the podcast dedicated to signs. Each episode is focused on a unique chosen by the guest. It can be visual or sound, icon, symbol, index gesture, inscription, object, everything that speaks We examine the function of the the context in which it appears, and the ways in it is interpreted.
Sophia Burnett (00:40)
this fifth episode, third in French, I am delighted to welcome Nicolas Pommier. Nicolas is a doctorate in contractuals at the University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle, attached to the Lattice where prepares a
theses consacré à la typologie de propositions subordonnées relatives Pollet Samvelian et Pascal Amsili. Formé d'abord au design graphique à l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, puis à l'École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, avant d'entreprendre un parallèle en
Its biography and the full of the episode are available on signspodcast.com.
Sophia Burnett (01:43)
So, bonjour Nicolas, to Sign(e)s
Nicolas Pommier (01:46)
Bonjour!
Sophia Burnett (01:46)
Hello, I'm very happy sign speaks to me If you could tell us more about your sign for this episode.
Nicolas Pommier (01:58)
So, the choice of the sign on the Y, it goes back my master's in decorative arts in Paris, where I had to a dissertation in graphic design and in parallel I was enrolled in a linguistics and I wanted a subject of a dissertation that could mix these two aspects, so I chose a bit the...
the common which seems to the letter and that's how I got on the Y because as we will see in the episode there a lot to say about it So it's a dissertation I defended in 2021, there are 5 years soon.
Sophia Burnett (02:41)
Okay, thank you very Yes, I read some parts in depth and it was really very, very
idea of smallest common denominator really a very interesting approach. Is it an approach? But then I saw the chapters, so...
It's about symbolism, iconography, Y as index, this sign that has many facets. So how did you organize this research? And by the way you to sort narrow the approach.
Nicolas Pommier (03:30)
It's true that it was a big question, for almost year I was immersed in this research on the Y. I've a of things, I've been researching by association, I came across a source that led me to other things, sometimes it's a bit by chance. And the end I found myself huge of information that didn't seem to be linked to other
I didn't know how to organize it, so I tried to find an architecture that could link some information together. It after a that I thought I would use the Y as a summary itself, because in many of my researches I found that it was associated with a cube. So I thought to the Y is...
There are many facets, I only a It allowed me to give up this search exhaustiveness and to on certain aspects. Especially the typographic since I was still in graphic The historical, linguistic of the origin of the sign, its uses, its sounds, its uses as words, since there words that
represented by the Y. And then a more symbolic with various case In mathematics, because I done a little mathematical before, so that interests me too. And then in music and in sciences too, are a lot of things linked to Y. That's how I proceeded. But it's true that the links were not necessarily always easy to establish.
Sophia Burnett (05:26)
Yes, yes, and I see the entry the glyph, and if I put on the screen now the first slide, first board of representation of Y which comes from several systems of writing.
Nicolas Pommier (05:49)
Yes, it was on the research a little bit of etymology, it's Louis-Jean Calvet who uses this term. So if we take the Latin it goes up, it's obviously borrowed from Y, so, well, the Greek which we called Y afterwards, and which is itself borrowed from the Phoenician, and if we even further up...
it derives from the proto-Sinaite, which would be a reinterpretation of hieroglyphs. The more we back, the harder it to the similarity with certainty. I found it interesting, especially from phonetic we know that the Phoenician was not an I or an U, it was a W sound.
with the articulation, the bialveolar And it's a sound that is still today in apparent like the Arabic which is the same etymology. So it shows not only the evolution of etymology, but also phonetic that may have in the uses of this sign.
Sophia Burnett (06:58)
And I see board, we're going to leave the typographic there thing that really me happy to...
to discover, fact, it's the first time that I've discovered this notion of molecular typography. here of...
The Henderson.
Nicolas Pommier (07:25)
and
K-Toms, and E-Toms, It seemed funny to both in perspective because it allows you confront two completely different of typography and letter There is the rather traditional vision which is based on the notion of ductus, to the sequence of set of lines which defines the structure of the letter.
Sophia Burnett (07:32)
Hatems and
Nicolas Pommier (07:56)
So for the Y, start by drawing the left then go on with the FU, and we end up the right which joins the first two segments in middle. There is another ductus of the Y with just two lines. From there, depending on the tool, using the shape of the Y
can be very different, especially on contrast. here see that on drawing of Pacioli, two left segments are wider than the right we're about contrast. And little by little, typography has distinguished from calligraphy, because it first tried to imitate calligraphy, and little by little it extracts and it has rationalized
And so we are gradually reaching a perspective of the letter with what we call components, independent segments that we arrange and that we can arrange differently to form different letters. And so I find that it well illustrated by this molecular where from the same elements it is simply a construction where recompose different letters. And that's a bit the way we today to design.
Sophia Burnett (09:02)
yes
Yes, and
Nicolas Pommier (09:17)
there you go
Sophia Burnett (09:18)
then this beautiful capacity to generate a formal this possible formalization of typography that I actually and that I find quite playful. As an approach
Nicolas Pommier (09:39)
Have a
Sophia Burnett (09:42)
I just put it here on the same page, I don't know if it was...
an aesthetic desire Well, yes
Nicolas Pommier (09:53)
that the beginning typography was very linked to the Renaissance and the moment when the printing house It was also a time when put the man back in heart of scientific at the time. So many humanists were trying to redraw
the letters in the image of the human Here see Pacholi, he inscribed it in a square and a circle, and it evokes the man from Vitruv, from Leonardo da Vinci, and it was Leonardo da Vinci who drew these boards. Later, in France, Geoffroy Thory who wrote the book entitled, it's quite funny, it's called Champ Fleury, it's redrawn the letters to measure of the body.
and the We can that we have a sort humanization of the letter. Moreover, all the typographic is inspired by human morphology. It relates to another approach, more architectural, of the letter, where we assemble things. But finally, the molecular typography, we find another form of life,
microscopic. So that was a little bit show these two approaches.
Sophia Burnett (11:14)
Yes, it's a nice juxtaposition. I really the Pacioli there are letters. imagine that the Y is particularly easy for this kind exercise of of humanization of the letter, since there is a...
We can easily imagine a person with arms raised and crossed, and then both legs together. There other letters of the alphabet. The time is much more complicated to or to imagine, to embody, in fact.
Nicolas Pommier (11:59)
Yes, it's an image that is quite present in the collective There is also Victor Hugo who wrote a whole text on in Alpes Pyrenees, a notebook he wrote in the late 19th He writes, have you noticed how much the Y is a pittoresque which has countless meanings? And compares the Y to a tree, to a road
river confluent, a head a a glass on foot, etc. And also a human figure that raises its arms to So it's pretty widespread as an And besides, it on the previous that I put the Chinese 牙, which means fork, bifurcation. So we have...
and of the sign, which is always present in other writing
about it.
Sophia Burnett (13:01)
Yes, because it's natural
We'll back to that a bit. You mentioned it.
The cube, the the angle, is a representation of a graphic that is around us, whether it's a branch of or we look up at the ceiling, there's good chance we'll see a Y does the...
the between the and the architectural, but it exists since it exists. So we will certainly come back
Nicolas Pommier (13:51)
I also at other descriptions of the Y of the Renaissance. Albrecht Dürer, for his Y, considers that he starts from the I, cuts it in half, and he splits it, so it forms a relief object that draws a cube. He also about the front and back so it's quite surprising that he thinks of the object in relief.
Sophia Burnett (14:11)
Mmm.
Nicolas Pommier (14:17)
So yeah, that's something that's quite present.
Sophia Burnett (14:20)
that's interesting view of Dürer to an entity, modify it, the an object in its whole and to bifurcate it.
Nicolas Pommier (14:23)
Hm. Hm.
Sophia Burnett (14:41)
funny picture I see with a clown.
Nicolas Pommier (14:46)
I'm
That's funny because it's the first image that my dissertation Philippe Millau, I was for a director and I sent him an email. He replied that he didn't want to new students, but that he was of dissertation on the clown and that had this image.
which really the junction between the two, so that's how he agreed to frame me. I found it quite amusing to put there. And finally it's again an artifact since it's the shape of a catapult it's very linked to the shape of the Y. It's also in the way of describing the stone we often about a Y-shaped
Sophia Burnett (15:41)
Just for... it's a nice little story, what language Polish.
Nicolas Pommier (15:45)
Hmm.
It's Polish.
The circus is not with an I, but with an Y.
Sophia Burnett (15:56)
Yeah, yeah,
And next to this image of a we have...
I It's
Nicolas Pommier (16:00)
It's a bit different,
it's a Czech, Karel Tag, who wrote a book called Abé Cédar, with a poem, which doesn't but is usually the page, and a choreography of the letter, and then a photomontage in the right
the text. And there, the Y, it refers to... The poem is quite strange, but it talks about both toys for children and elements of war and confrontation. I think it also to the Y as a weapon of the jet, which could explain the...
the choreography of Mariyohva as if she was hit by a bullet.
Sophia Burnett (16:58)
Mm.
Yes, it's a lot interpretation and makes me of the mimodynamique the Jacques Lecoq, this person who works on little
little against the representations of the direct calques made by the body.
And so it's a bit strange to photograph where the person, well, it's for me a little bit opposite of the if I had to personify it, would be perhaps little happier and lighter and more
Nicolas Pommier (17:47)
The choreography doesn't really the lyrics, but I think it's more interpretation of the text, of the poem written on the Y.
Sophia Burnett (17:59)
so yeah, makes more sense.
Nicolas Pommier (18:01)
The poem
refers to episode of David and Goliath. think it's more about than the letter itself. It's interesting because when we talk about Y in the alphabet, we think about the two arms raised. But it's not what was chosen for this A, A.
Sophia Burnett (18:16)
Hmm.
Yes, it's not that I was about playing. I was about playing, but it's because there is the Y in "toy" So not for the same reasons.
Nicolas Pommier (18:36)
Ah yes!
I don't know if there are representations with an Y that makes a toy. I don't don't have an idea in mind.
Sophia Burnett (18:49)
It comes from somewhere. The author of the poem met the toy in the translation of the toy. It would just once and it stays.
Nicolas Pommier (18:52)
Hmm.
Sophia Burnett (19:00)
In the next page...
a very nice engraving or printed.
Nicolas Pommier (19:10)
It's Champ Fleury by Tory I was about earlier. It's book from the 16th century. In this book, are many analogies between the letter and the human As I said, it's the objective. But are other allegorical especially the Greek which is represented
in the form of Thoreau calls the Pythagorean So it goes back to an old Apologus, the Apologus of Prodigus, where it tells the story of Hercules, who, at adult has choose the path he wants to in his future life. And so there are two ways he can the left one, which is wide, easy, maybe pleasant, but which leads a little to the...
to the damnation and then the right path which is more difficult, more narrow but which leads to redemption and so it's to virtue, glory so it's a bit this image which represented in the of the Y since traditionally in typography the left branch is wider than the right branch and so it also well with the Christian vision of
of between life and virtue.
Sophia Burnett (20:45)
à la vertu et la vis, ou est-ce que ce n'est pas aussi...
Nicolas Pommier (20:50)
Yes
It's in the text that Tory puts me below, he says, The voice of Volupte, I figured, attached a sword, a whip, a green, a sling and a fire to show that at of Volupte depends, and follows, all miserably, and awful torments. While in the voice of virtue I attached a laurel palms, a scepter, a crown.
to show that virtue brings all pure all honor, all royal domination. these really
of virtue in front of It's quite amusing that it's in the shape of a Y.
Sophia Burnett (21:41)
Yes, yes. It's a great way a graphic codes so many meanings in fact, just changing the size of the two branches. So, question is, one appeared first?
Is graphic a finer is all graphic with finer branch on right? It comes to from this medieval
Nicolas Pommier (22:24)
and
Sophia Burnett (22:26)
or do we not know?
Nicolas Pommier (22:30)
then...
I think it's quite old, because it's already seen in Lactans, a from the 6th century. He already it Y as a Pythagorean I didn't study in detail this representation was made over the centuries.
I'm not sure that there was this typographic that would later, with the calligraphy I don't know if it was already But any case, symbolism of Y as a choice between two paths has already been attested for long time.
Sophia Burnett (23:10)
you
Yes, and the fact that it's on the too, it works.
Nicolas Pommier (23:31)
And then it was taken up in other iconographies. there I put on the same board the Basilica in the 17th where we clearly see a big Y with on left the darkness, on the right the paradise, the divine and the sovereign who looks to right and who renounces the...
Sophia Burnett (23:57)
Hmm.
Nicolas Pommier (23:58)
to Earth's to go to the We go with the crown and the world card at its feet. We also see that it echoes this symbol of the Y as a between vice and virtue. And more broadly, the Y can be sent back to the Trinity. It's another
Sophia Burnett (24:15)
Mm-mm-mm. To you.
Nicolas Pommier (24:24)
So the Skutum Fidei is literally the shield of faith. so we see that God separates himself into three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So God is the three, but none the three is born from one of the two others. And so it forms a kind of armor in Y, which is the protection of the believer
Here is the shield of faith. So I thought that all these symbols intersect.
Sophia Burnett (24:58)
Yes,
the Greek was quickly recovered its symbolic, schematic
What interests me is the idea of calligraphy and pen. You talked about pen and...
Nicolas Pommier (25:18)
Mm. Oui.
Sophia Burnett (25:21)
the in fact to have done little calligraphy in my lost hours, indeed, if we are right-handed.
The left branch will necessarily be thicker than the right branch. Yes, because the angle closes when you want to the... Yes.
Nicolas Pommier (25:47)
It also on the angle of the pen.
There are different too. some, Well, on the inclination, may be contrasts that
Sophia Burnett (25:50)
.
Nicolas Pommier (26:01)
I'm the rustica calligraphy, has very vertical so the fuses narrower than diagonals.
Sophia Burnett (26:07)
Yes
Yes, think that the natural pen hold will this difference thickness, which I lead creative imagine ways heaven.
There is a of break with the next page. A lot of things in there. We are no
Nicolas Pommier (26:44)
Hehehe
No. I found it interesting to explore this aspect because it turns out that there is a gendered, sexual attached to the Greek which is quite fascinating because for very long time, during antiquity, it was mainly a symbol associated with femininity.
The Greeks talk about vases that collect fluids, about life which is also echoing in the uterus which also a Greek There were all these symbols of femininity. then, from the moment we discovered chromosomes, which dates back to 19th century, we decided to name X and Y, and on.
So, it turns out that woman has two chromosomes, and the has a chromosome X and a chromosome Y. So, Y is associated only with the man, so it has masculinity. so, is a new symbolism that developed in opposition to the old one, with the Y associated the man and no with the woman. So, here I put two examples, we see the...
The comic, Y, the last man in english is Y the last man. story is that all the owners the Y disappear except the main is called Yorick. And then another...
Sophia Burnett (28:30)
No,
no, I imagine it's the fantasy of lot of young people.
Nicolas Pommier (28:34)
I don't know if
I didn't read the comic book. I don't know exactly, but I thought it was quite iconic. And the perfume of Yves Saint Laurent, it's a perfume for men, so the ad says, a man fully accomplished. So we can see that the Y is associated with...
the aspect of masculinity. So I found it quite amusing to have both in parallel. Maybe the Greek letter is the only one that has changed sex in its history.
Sophia Burnett (29:10)
Mm.
Good morning.
Yes, it's the being, in relation to genetics, which is disproportionate in its representation of...
In any case, the genetic work accomplished on the chromosome. Because the X carries much more genetic than the Y. But since it is a differentiation with the woman, necessarily the Y takes a lot more value.
Nicolas Pommier (29:59)
For some species it's different, there's system W, W and WZ, where the male has two identical and the female has two distinct It can vary depending on the species. I think it's for some birds.
Sophia Burnett (30:24)
they're Okay. ⁓ You know.
Nicolas Pommier (30:26)
see that we called it Y because we named it X at beginning. So it's also of coincidence that Y is associated with masculinity. It's a coincidence of the alphabet again. Because we often tend to use being Y as a second X. It's the case in math, the second unknown is Y.
Sophia Burnett (30:41)
Hmm.
Nicolas Pommier (30:54)
It's something I've a lot in doing research on the Y. It's a bit like the eternal second, so we the I, then the Y, then the X, then the Y. It's a letter that's a bit apart in the alphabet, I think.
Sophia Burnett (31:12)
It's like the Y X, it's the Y, well for me, Western, like Occidental, it's the Y that I read first,
Nicolas Pommier (31:23)
Yes, yes. It's also the fact that Greek letter was re-printed by the Latins later. So it's already an etymological that is used write prints at the beginning. It's true that there very particular For example, I put in my dissertation a reference to Rimbaud who writes his
Sophia Burnett (31:24)
Yeah.
Nicolas Pommier (31:50)
on vowels. here are the vowels, it's a, e, o, u and y. And fact y is not really how to treat it since it is used to transcribe several sounds, especially in French i and so the vowel i but also the semi-vowel i. And finally it's just another i in French and so the rhombus finally the
He he just it at the end of the poem under the name Ie. There it's not a vowel but a semi-vowel. I found it funny too.
The The poem by Rimbaud yes.
Sophia Burnett (32:33)
je veux bien entendre, please
Nicolas Pommier (33:02)
In the anger where the wretchedness penitent. U, cycle, vividly divine of the virid sea Peace of the pitied sowed with animals, forlorn. That alchemy prints on studious forrids O supreme light, full of strangeness Silence crossed worlds and angels. O the omega, violet beam of his eyes.
Sophia Burnett (33:27)
Super, merci beaucoup. Merci beaucoup. Mais pauvre Rimbaud
Nicolas Pommier (33:28)
if
Sophia Burnett (33:32)
It's so pretty, and yet it's just an I. Yes, it's not even I. Well, I can add an addendum to that poem.
Nicolas Pommier (33:37)
It's not even an I, it's an I. It's an IOD.
Yes,
it's true that for long time typography, especially the... As the Y was borrowed at the beginning, it was an U in Greek, it the Upsilon. And then by phonetic in late Latin there was no U, so it became I, because it's just the rounding of the lips that changes, I U. And so for long time the spelling could...
could alternate between i and y in the words. It was used as graphic variation, either for reasons readability, in the sequence of letters, the y was a little more distinctive. Sometimes even in incoherence, for example in word Champfleurie, sometimes have a same sentence a word that is written in two different so we can wonder if it's not just to have more homogeneous
Sophia Burnett (34:47)
Mmm.
Nicolas Pommier (34:49)
And sometimes, even today, the two spelling subsists. For example, Abîme, word today in French is with an i, with an i, and circumflex But in the expression mise en Abyme, kept the spelling with a y. It's quite surprising to see both. Originally it was greek Abussos so with a upsilon
Sophia Burnett (35:11)
what is interesting to note, to always is that the evolution of is often linked a time when there were a lot of craftsmen the printing house, an organization people work was to be
who would these letters during day and therefore constantly seek ways to more effective, to find ways not to confuse glyphs There were lot of minims for the writers, in any case. so sometimes it's
not So here we're talking about mystery. It's not a pretzel. It's the as what you said about the Y.
Nicolas Pommier (36:11)
Hmm.
Sophia Burnett (36:21)
Maybe it's been long time since represented women. And now it's reversed.
Nicolas Pommier (36:26)
Yes
Yes, it's a kind of rediscovery, which is put forward a today on the clitoris, and which ultimately has a form of a Y. So maybe we're back to femininity.
Sophia Burnett (36:45)
I think we have better things to with our struggles.
Nicolas Pommier (36:52)
Yes
I found
it interesting how a symbol can be used in many different ways to represent something its own. And the Y, I think it illustrates it perfectly.
Sophia Burnett (37:08)
We need.
Oui.
the last board.
Nicolas Pommier (37:17)
Yes, it was the last part of the dissertation where I wanted to show that there are lots of symbols of Y that accumulated and there are always new ones that appear. It's a very simple and universal We're about generation Y, generation X, generation Y, generation Z, and there is one of the explanations.
Sophia Burnett (37:19)
Don't tell us no.
Nicolas Pommier (37:43)
For the Y generation, would also the development of the headphones. We all headphones, it would a Y. It's a bit a legend, but it's something quite evocative. There is more recently music. So there is
rap by Jul, a Marseillean with a song called En Y. in the popular means to a rear on a scooter. It evokes Y, rather in two branches, with the scooter, is the right and the driver's the It's expression that has more more.
and which can even be used now in a broader way to say to
Sophia Burnett (38:41)
Okay, so how it? I'm not a gen Y or I'm in Y? Or was he in Y?
Nicolas Pommier (38:49)
Mm.
I them in Y. I will put them in Y.
Sophia Burnett (39:01)
I want to
myself in Greek.
Nicolas Pommier (39:05)
Yeah, put in Y, dominate, reverse, reign as master, erm
Sophia Burnett (39:09)
Ah, yeah. Okay. Because I, yes, yes, after the references, it's generational, and when I think about putting myself in Y, I have the impression that I'm going to the stupid of YMCA. It's our Y that, so you say, that is apparent to domination?
Nicolas Pommier (39:19)
All right.
⁓ No. It's another Y.
It's
bit Succeeding in back on a scooter is something... It's something socially. To put it in Y is to show how strong you are and how can
Sophia Burnett (39:38)
We
Impressive.
Mm. Mala.
Okay, so the reference is always this position on the and everyone knows it.
Nicolas Pommier (40:07)
And it's true
that when you hear it at the beginning, if you don't have this reference to the world of stunt, you can't understand the expression.
Sophia Burnett (40:18)
Yes, yes, yes, but indeed, if was taken up by a known in a video clip, a circulation that I haven't seen, obviously, but younger people, it's impactful, I imagine.
Nicolas Pommier (40:34)
I didn't know the song, a friend of mine told me about Apparently the expression is quite common. I don't know if it will last long, but the years 2020, it was in use.
Sophia Burnett (40:45)
Hmm.
Yes.
so, we just finished on this board, so we have a logo of the Russian
Nicolas Pommier (41:01)
And...
I also this the generational aspect of the Y generation, it's also the first generation that has grown with the development of internet and all the new technologies, social I found this Yandex a Russian that reflects this idea of globalization with the globe.
that we can see in many search engines, Firefox too. Except that here it's a kind of network that encompasses the whole planet and forms a Y. we find what the Greeks call the Tristatum, the three paths that separate or that join.
Sophia Burnett (41:49)
Yes, that's what's interesting about this example. this bifurcation, but it's the application with the sphere, it's it joins.
Nicolas Pommier (42:00)
And the other aspect that I find interesting is that the Y was chosen, because in Russian, yandex is written with an IA, it's a of R. And in Latin transliteration, it's written with a Y, and so the Y was chosen. It also an aspect that is...
Sophia Burnett (42:13)
inversed
Nicolas Pommier (42:28)
which we are increasingly with in typography, it's the kind of supremacy of the Latin over all other alphabets. So there is also a whole story around that. One of the most famous is the Ataturk's in Turkey, which imposed the Latin alphabet on Arab alphabet.
Sophia Burnett (42:35)
Hmm
Nicolas Pommier (42:53)
which was considered more modern, more sophisticated. This is an idea that has been around for whole 20th century, and is quite old, because...
Sophia Burnett (42:53)
Hmm.
Nicolas Pommier (43:04)
This Condorcet, written in a historical of human progress, that the alphabet, especially the Latin is the culmination of evolution of writing. This idea is found throughout the 20th century in Turkey, but also in Russia, is the linguist Nicolas Marr, who pushes to adoption.
of the Latin the same, more modern, more universal, archaic and bourgeois. And then, the same in China, where there was also this attempt to abandon the Chinese to adopt the Latin And so, finally, it didn't happen, but it was something that was envisaged.
Sophia Burnett (43:58)
at the logo again and the writing. In fact, can wonder to what extent chosen an English has language of globalization.
any case for lot of that use of preservation of the I
would have impacted the pronunciation. could have, on the person who say it and who will choose A or E.
Nicolas Pommier (44:38)
to the choice of the initial?
Sophia Burnett (44:40)
Oui.
Nicolas Pommier (44:40)
It's a YAH, the Russian.
Sophia Burnett (44:47)
the
English transcription we could
The I
Nicolas Pommier (44:52)
Hmm.
Sophia Burnett (44:52)
Except that it would have worked for France, for example, but not for the United Kingdom other English-speaking Yeah, I'm just stating the obvious.
Nicolas Pommier (45:00)
I think that
the official transliteration of letters is more with a Y, it's interesting because often the logos are designed for readers of Latin and especially the brand Automobile Kia has recently changed its logo and fact it currently looks like
Sophia Burnett (45:09)
We. Yeah.
Nicolas Pommier (45:30)
K and an I Cyrillic. So if we read it in Cyrillic, we read who and not who has. I found it interesting, in a global think that we are oriented more to Latin and we don't necessarily account other possible
Sophia Burnett (45:38)
Oui!
Yes,
any case, because knowledge is also The English will not understand Cyrillic rest of the world had to learn English, unfortunately.
you start looking at a simple book like this, an you see everywhere. It was the case for you after the Master, you see Ys everywhere. At some point slight of illness.
Nicolas Pommier (46:26)
obsession.
I think for 2-3 years I continued to see this everywhere. I saw lot especially in road road And then finally there are lot of studios, that have Ys It's quite frequent, it's something I've seen lot too.
or even the name I, Y. I don't them in my but the more you attention to the more you notice them. There many brands that play on this, since it's an etymological and French we find them mostly in sacred there many brands that play on by changing an I to Y, for example Prestige written with an Y which is used for...
Sophia Burnett (47:23)
Oui.
Nicolas Pommier (47:26)
for brands that want to bit luxurious. So it's quite fun when you look at all that. Now I notice them little less, I think.
Sophia Burnett (47:29)
Like it's a little medieval
Okay
another letter or glyph? If you had to choose one, it would be...
Nicolas Pommier (47:48)
I don't know exactly. First, when with the Y, I realized I was with lot of letters in the because from an etymological the U, the V, the W, the Y, and even the F have the same Phoenician as the W, because the F derives from the 10 Greek which is itself an evolution of the Phoenician So it's already five letters. And then...
I didn't want to deal with other letters. For example, the A, lot of things were done, because it's the first letter of the alphabet. And on the X, are also very symbolic But I found that letter Y is less known than others.
Sophia Burnett (48:34)
Yes, I think so too. That's why it's so good that you came today talk about it. I know that I learned a lot the Y. thank you much. It was really very interesting.
Nicolas Pommier (48:52)
We could talk about for time, the dissertation is 160 pages 150 illustrations. We could talk about many aspects, but it's already a preview.
Sophia Burnett (49:05)
Yes,
Nicolas Pommier (49:08)
you for inviting me. was a pleasure. See you next time, I hope.
Sophia Burnett (49:12)
Okay, merci beaucoup Nicolas.
Nicolas Pommier (49:14)
bye
Sophia Burnett (49:14)
Au revoir!
Sophia Burnett (49:25)
is there a point that you would like to address before we say goodbye? That we haven't seen on the boards?
Nicolas Pommier (49:35)
I thought of the as a toponym. I found several references to this research. For example, was a census zone in Alaska, is at the intersection of two main There is still the road in Y, which gave its name to the zone. It changed name after
that I find the sure to it correctly. in France I also found the Y Grenoble, which is the Grenoble that has the intersection of three mountainous massifs, the Chartreuse to north, the Vercor to the west and the...
the Bell-Don in the It quickly a big Y between the three massifs. It's a common And in the Somme there's a commune called Y. It's a funny it comes from a toponym of Gallo-Roman idiacum, literally the place, the property of Ido.
And then by phonetic the consonants have silent, is the drop of consonants, it has become reduced And then simply I, with several spelling, so there was first H, Y, then simply Y, and so finally it is the Y form that remained. And so we call it the city Y And what is even more fun is that they recreated a gentilic so the people who live in the city, we called them the Ypsilomites, so in reference to the letter Y, and more...
in the name of the origin I found it so amusing that I sent my dissertation to the of the Mayor of 'Y'. So there's a copy of the Y in the municipal It was a lot ⁓ fun. ⁓
Sophia Burnett (51:34)
Excellent! Did
did the Mayor answer?
Nicolas Pommier (51:39)
Yes, it's a certain Mr. Jolly with an Y. I found that pretty pretty too. I a picture of the with my memory in front of the It's one of the few anecdotes around research.
Sophia Burnett (51:45)
you
perfect
excellent
Toponymic yes, excellent. Thank you very Nicolas. Is there anything else?
Nicolas Pommier (52:09)
I think we could continue for long time.
Sophia Burnett (52:12)
Okay, we're going stop here.
