Europium-doped yttrium-silicon-oxide-nitride phosphors are synthesized by carbothermal reduction and nitridation method. The crystal structure of the phosphors changed gradually from oxide Y2Si2 O7 to nitride YSi3N5state with increasing dosage of Si3N4 and carbon powder. The Y2Si2O7:Eu phosphor shows a blue emission at 465 nm with 300 nm excitation and a characteristic red emission of Eu3+ at 612 nm with 230 nm excitation. The YSi3N5 :Eu phosphor shows a broad emission band centred at 595 nm with some sharp peaks of Eu3+ with 325 nm excitation. The absorption of the studied phosphors increases from 450 to 700 nm with an increment in nitrogen content. Blue-to-orange tunable luminescence is observed with 390 nm excitation.