Adam lay ybounden. Any ys around these days?

Thanks for pointing out the similar question. Great, but note that I'm trying to find ...

• is there any SPECIFIC examples/evidence around of yword yusage TODAY?

• other than jokey usage, is there any fresh and real usage?

• nobody has explained, simply what period was it popular? (if at all - or was it just an artifact or something?)

• and indeed, what ywere the Top Three Yword greatest hits?

Cheers!

I made an ybounden the other day,

and it brought to mind the questions:

These days, are there any words which use the y- prefix?

What is the origin of this prefix?

In what period was it popular?

What were, at that time, other popular words with the y- prefix?

Is it perhaps today still popular in other (European?) languages - which?

Is the whole thing just a typo/artifact? What's the deal?

But mostly ........ are there any ywords popular today?

Solution 1:

Many of your questions are answered tangentially by What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix "ge-"?. But you ask some new questions about current usage.

• For usage nowadays in all varieties of Modern English, no, none of 'y-', 'ge-', or their derivatives are used at all as a prefix for past participle (or for any prefix). It might appear modified in some ossified phrases or words (eg handiwork, or in rare regionalisms as 'a-'.
• 'ge-' is entirely a Germanic past participle marker (it appears in no other Indo-European language (sumelic will surely correct me here if otherwise)) and has been lost in many Germanic ones as well (enumerated in other answers here).
• For the time span: OE (up to 1066) used 'ge-', ME (~1150 - ~1500) used 'y-' or not at all, EModE use 'y-' very rarely ('yclept'), and Modern Standard English never. (all dates extremely vague and labels oversimplified!). There may be various holdovers in regional dialects. But note that the descendents of 'ge-' would have to be past participles; "Froggy's gone acourtin'" is an entirely different anachronistic 'a-', not from 'ge-'.
• the top three archaic words that are sometimes used are 'yclept' for 'called', 'yclad' for 'clothed', ... and .. really, 'ybounden'? I've never heard that outside the hymn (and even then the memory is pretty hazy (end even then I don't really know what it means)). As to popularity, sure, some people use 'yclept' in a faux medieval cant, along with 'methinks', 'betwixt', and 'ye'.

What's really a word? It's obvious when it is and obvious when it isn't, but near the borderline it's not obvious. If it is in your Scrabble dictionary... sigh ... that's a game that has to have arbitrary rules. Sure, go wild and use 'y-' in Scrabble (if your reference dictionary allows), at your local Renaissance Fayre, or to signal to your local Morris Dancing group that you are kindred spirits. Just recognize the use as very ... particular.

Also, the OED (use your local US/UK library site to connect, sorry everyone else) has an excellent entry on 'y-' (prefix 2), and answers all these questions in depth. Note that that entry has no citations, implying that it is ... not really a thing anymore.

Solution 2:

The closest examples are with the prefix "a-" in the likes of "a frog he would a-wooing go", which is from "ge-", and the "I" in "handiwork", also from "ge-". The meaning of "ge-" in Old English wasn't ybounden to the verb or universal as it is nowadays in German, although that also has other examples too, but is more a sense of being completed or gathered together, as with "ywis" - certainly, so the "i" is a valid example.

Solution 3:

To see those Y words in action, read The Canterbury Tales in the original language, of course. published 1386

For example, line 1149, in The Knyghtes Tale,

For which thou art ybounden as a knyght

As explained in a more complete answer, if you know that in German the past participle is formed with prefix ge-, then you can recognize the similarity with these past participles formed in Chaucer's English with y-.

In this picture, we can see the line

That whilom was ycleped Scithia,

Solution 4:

shorter Oxford Eng Dict lists 4 yclad, yclept, ypent, ywroken but are all described as archaic. It also includes a dozen obsolete y- words which apparently derive from the germanic→Old Englsih words with the prefix ge- (and are perhaps identical to the latin co-). Did you really mean to call English a Romance language??? Same source says most of those words were lost by the late Middle English period, but some survived as intentional archaicisms and mentions the above two as well as yravish. Here is the one's I spotted:yblent, yborn, ybound, ybrent, yclepped, ydred, yfere, ygo, ypight, ysame, ysprung, ywhere.