Glossary — Y

Glossary terms beginning with Y.

yala: Lesser monsoon--the secondary growing season for paddy (rice) and most other annual crops with sowing between April and May and harvesting four or five months later. For some foodstuffs and cotton, when grown in the dry zone under irrigation, the yala crop is more important than the maha (q.v.) crop.
Yalta Conference: Meeting of Josph V. Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in February 1945 that redrew post-World War II national borders and established spheres of influence in Europe.
Yamato: Refers to the country of Japan or things Japanese, such as yamato-e (Japanese painting) and to the ancient court from which the imperial family arose. The Yamato court was situated either in modern Nara Prefecture, from the early fourth century A.D., or in northern Kyushu, starting perhaps in the early third century A.D.
yangban: The scholar-official ruling class of traditional Korea, distinguished for its knowledge of neo-Confucianism and its monopoly of high government positions; more broadly, families with lineages descended from scholar-officials, and scholars who had passed the civil service examinations even though they had not secured an official post.
Yankee: Generally pejorative term used in Latin America to refer to United States citizens.
yasaq: A legal code developed after Chinggis Khan’s death but attributed to him; regulations; the code of Mongol law.
Yazidi(s): Member(s) of a small religious group. The religion is little known to outsiders but contains elements of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, and also includes the veneration of the Peacock Angel.
yellow cake: The U308 uranium concentrate used by nuclear power plants in Angra dos Reis in Rio de Janeiro State. It is a radioactive substance made from a low-grade uranium ore.; Source: Library of Congress
yen (¥): The national currency, in coins of 1, 5, 10, and 100 yen and notes of 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 yen. From 1945 to 1971, the Japanese yen was in fixed parity with the United States dollar at ¥360=US$1. After a period of adjustment during the financial crises of the 1971-73 period, the value has floated according to movements in the international capital markets.
yeshiva (pl., yeshivot): Traditional rabbinical school for the study of Talmud (q.v.).
Yiddish: A language based on medieval Rhineland German used by Jews in eastern, northern, and central Europe and in areas to which Jews from these regions migrated. It also contains elements of Hebrew, Russian, and Polish, and it is commonly written in Hebrew characters.
Yihe Huree: Literally, ""great monastery"" or ""great camp,"" founded in the seventeenth century as the residence of the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu (Living Buddha, [q.v.]) and capital of Mongolia in 1911, when it was renamed Niyslel--capital--Huree. Commonly referred to in Western literature as Urga. In 1924 when the state was secularized, the name was changed to Ulaanbaatar, which means Red Hero.
Yishuv: The Jewish community in Palestine before statehood. Also used in referring to the period between 1900 and 1948.
yobiko: A type of private school that specializes in preparing high- school graduates for university-entrance examinations, often through intensive full-time programs.
Young Turks: A Turkish revolutionary nationalist reform party, officially known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), whose leaders led a rebellion against the Ottoman sultan and effectively ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1908 until shortly before World War I.; Source: Library of Congress
yuan (-Y): China’s monetary unit, which in mid-1987 had an exchange rate of US$1 to -Y3.72, or -Y1 to US$.269. The yuan is divided into 100 fen, and 10 fen constitute 1 jiao. The currency is known as renminbi (RMB), meaning the people’s currency. The inscription renminbi (or renminbiao) appears on bank notes as well as yuan, and the terms renminbi and yuan are used synonymously in quoting exchange rates. In transactions the terms are universally replaced by the word kuai (piece). Beginning in the early 1980s, the standard currency was paralleled by a special currency called Foreign Exchange Certificates, which were issued in exchange for ""hard"" foreign currencies.
Yugoslavia: Established in 1918 as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The kingdom included the territory of present-day Bosnia and Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Between 1929 and 1945, the country was called the kingdom of Yugoslavia (land of the South Slavs). In 1945 Yugoslavia became a federation of six republics under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito. In 1991 Yugoslavia broke apart because of long-standing internal disputes among its republics and weak central government. The secession of Croatia and Slovenia in mid-1991 led to a bloody war between Serbia and Croatia. In the fall of 1991, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Macedonia also seceded from the federation, leaving Serbia (with its provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Montenegro as the constituent parts of the federation. Under the leadership of President Slobodan Milosevic, however, Serbia retained substantial territorial claims in Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia at the beginning of 1992.; Source: Library of Congress