"y" versus "e"?

Question

The following sentence seems to have two forms of "and": "e" and "y". Or does "e" mean something else? I could not locate a definition of "e". THANKS.

La misión principal será revertir los avances del Talibán e imponer la seguridad en los centros poblados del sur y el este del país.

Now I see there is a whole lesson on this topic - 4.1 - which explains the topic very well. - LaBurra, Dec 5, 2009

Answer 1

From Spanish.about.com:

Two of the most common conjunctions in Spanish — y (meaning "and") and o (meaning "or") — can change spelling and pronunciation based on the word that follows.

Both changes help keep the conjunction from blending into the following word. Y becomes e when it precedes a word that begins with the i sound, while o becomes u when it precedes a word that begins with the o sound. Typically, then, the y becomes e when it precedes most words that begin with i- or hi-, and o becomes u preceding words starting with o- or ho-. Y does not change before words, such as hierba, that begin with the y sound, regardless of spelling.

I think they should amend that last sentence to say the English y. Earlier they refer to the i sound meaning the Spanish i. - 0074b507, Dec 3, 2009

Answer 2

In most variants of Spanish, when the "y" is pronounced as a consonant it is quite similar in pronunciation to the pronunciation in English (as a consonant); the most obvious exception being los argentinos. My only exception to Marianne's response (which I will "vote up" in a moment) is that I would have enclosed all the "y's" and "i's" in quotation marks.