From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWhorter and let's open with a nice sunny segment from the opera Vatsuk.

This is Act 3, Scene 2, and it's all about the protagonist and his, well, listen.

icie desmuffled réurors

nen die Tort principalette der THIS poem,

which is a bit of an open, but it's actually about somebody who is expiring.

Well, it's because this section of the opera was titled by Albonberg,

Invention on a Note.

And what he meant by that was that the note B,

B natural, just permeates this whole part of the opera.

So you could call it an Invention on B.

And the reason I played that is because I'm going to do an Invention.

This show is going to be an Invention on Y.

Not the letter, but the word Y.

I'm going to see how much I can get out of what is actually a really fun little word.

But you know what, we need, we need an actually sunny opening.

That was terrible.

Here are two people singing a song.

And the reason that I chose the song is because it has the word Y in it.

Ah, here's the music and there's no one there.

I smell blossoms and the trees are bare.

Oh, my long, I seem to walk on air.

...