See also:ـی, ې [U+06D0 ARABIC LETTER E], ي [U+064A ARABIC LETTER YEH], ئ [U+0626 ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH HAMZA ABOVE], ۍ [U+06CD ARABIC LETTER YEH WITH TAIL], ے [U+06D2 ARABIC LETTER YEH BARREE], ى [U+0649 ARABIC LETTER ALEF MAKSURA], andۓ [U+06D3 ARABIC LETTER YEH BARREE WITH HAMZA ABOVE]
(Egypt,Sudan) The yāʾي(y) in the final position, as spelled by the Egyptians and the Sudanese. This was the original form of the letter in final position for both of -ī and -ā, before the creation of ي(y) in the late nineteenth century in the Levant. The continued use of this form long after the creation of ي(y) may be due to Ottoman influence in Egypt where the newer Arabic form was rare and this form was the prevalent. Compare that in Egypt, the Arabic alphabet letters are (still) named based on the Ottoman convention, a practice now almost exclusive to Egypt and Sudan. Electronically, the similar shaped ى is used.
If preceded by a consonant, the letter ی represents /ai/.
If preceded by a vowel, ی represents /j/.
If the letter follows a consonant in a word, it indicates the word is masculine singular and in the direct case. At the end of verbs it is used to form verbal participles in the masculine.
