The Curious Case of the Hidden Yellow Warbler:

When ‘i’ Says /y/ in Words Like Onion and Companion

“I think the i is saying /yuh/ here.”

Wesley, 3rd grader and sound detective

Every so often, a student says something that opens a new wing in the system. That’s what happened this week during a tutoring session with Wesley, a bright and curious learner I’ve had the joy of working with over the years. We were reading through a list of familiar words when he paused at one: onion.

“Wait... the i in onion... is it saying /yuh/?”

And just like that, a new sound pattern revealed itself.

What’s Going On Here?

In words like onion, million, and companion, the letter i isn’t behaving in the way we usually teach it. Instead of sounding like /ih/ or /ee/, it glides into something closer to /y/, the same sound we hear at the beginning of yes or yellow.

Linguists call this a palatal glide. The /y/ sound (represented by the symbol /j/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet) emerges when the letter i precedes certain vowels, especially in unstressed syllables. It’s subtle, but undeniable—a gentle shift that carries the word forward.

But Isn’t That the Yellow Warbler’s Sound?

Exactly. In The Alphabet System™, the /y/ sound is carried by the Yellow Warbler, a bright and joyful presence in the phoneme flock. But this hidden /y/ doesn’t appear at the beginning of a word. It appears within it—tucked into the letter i.

These unexpected moments are precisely why the system leaves space for wonder. Not every sound fits neatly into a category. Some arrive wearing disguises, asking to be discovered.

For Educators and Families

When a child notices these kinds of patterns, celebrate it. They’re not making a mistake—they’re tuning in to the complexity of English. Observations like this are signs of an emerging reader who is paying close attention to how language actually works.

This is a perfect opportunity to:

• Revisit the /y/ sound and its Yellow Warbler symbol

• Explore the idea that letters sometimes take on new roles

• Encourage students to become “sound detectives” in their own reading

  
  

A Living System of Sound

The Alphabet System™ is both structured and fluid—designed to support mastery while leaving room for discovery. As new observations arise, they can be gathered into a growing field of patterns, exceptions, and possibilities. This particular finding will be added to the Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) version of the Yellow Warbler page and documented in the Wings of Curiosity collection.

Language is alive, and so is our approach to learning it.

We’ll continue to listen, to look more closely, and to let language teach us what it wants us to know—one curious sound at a time.