How Did the Letter Y Become a Consonant?

The letter Y originally represented that rounded Greek sound, E. And it was used exclusively in Greek loanwords with that sound. People in the late Latin period had started to do the same thing that later English speakers would do. They started to pronounce that sound without rounding their lips. So the letter Y acquired the same sound as the letter I in theLate Latin period. That explains the name of the letter Y in many Latin-derived languages like French and Spanish.