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U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pronounced ), plural ''ues''.

History

U derives from the Semitic waw, as does F, and later, Y, W, and V. Its oldest ancestor goes to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and is probably from a hieroglyph of a mace or fowl, representing the sound v">Voiced_labiodental_fricative.html" ;"title="nowiki/> vor the sound [Voiced labial–velar approximant">w">Voiced labiodental fricative">vor the sound [Voiced labial–velar approximant">w This was borrowed to Phoenician, where it represented the sound [w], and seldom the vowel [Close back rounded vowel, u].

In Greek language, Greek, two letters were adapted from the Phoenician waw. The letter was adapted, but split in two, with the Digamma, first one of the same name (Ϝ) being adapted to represent w.html" ;"title="nowiki/> w">nowiki/> w and the second one being Upsilon (), which was originally adapted to represent u later fronted, becoming [Close front rounded vowel">y">Close back rounded vowel">u later fronted, becoming [Close front rounded vowel">y

In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as U, taking the form of modern-day V — either directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediary — to represent the same sound, as well as the consonantal , ''num'' — originally spelled ''NVM'' — was pronounced and ''via'' was pronounced . From the 1st century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal developed into (kept in Spanish), then later to .
During the late Middle Ages, two forms of U developed, which were both used for /v/ or the vowel /u/. The pointed form 'V' was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form 'U' was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas 'valour' and 'excuse' appeared as in modern printing, 'have' and 'upon' were printed 'haue' and 'vpon', respectively. The first recorded use of 'U' and 'V' as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where 'V' preceded 'U'. Printers eschewed capital 'V' and 'U' into the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762. The rounded variant became the modern-day version of U and its former pointed form became V.

Pronunciation and use

English

In English, the letter has four main pronunciations. There are "long" and "short" pronunciations. Short , found originally in closed syllables, most commonly represents (as in 'duck'), though it retains its old pronunciation after labial consonants in some words (as in 'put') and occasionally elsewhere (as in 'sugar'). Long , found originally in words of French origin (the descendant of Old English long u was respelled as ), most commonly represents (as in 'mule'), reducing to after (as in 'rule'), (as in 'June') and sometimes (or optionally) after (as in 'lute'), and after additional consonants in American English (see do–dew merger). (After , have assimilated to in some words) In a few words, short represents other sounds, such as in 'business' and in 'bury'.

The letter is used in the digraphs , (various pronunciations, but usually /aʊ/), and with the value of "long u" in , , and in a few words (as in 'fruit'). It often has the sound before a vowel in the sequences (as in 'quick'), (as in 'anguish'), and (as in 'suave'), though it is silent in final ''-que'' (as in 'unique') and in many words with (as in 'guard').

Additionally, the letter is used in text messaging, Internet and other written slang to denote 'you', by virtue of both being pronounced .

One thing to note is that certain varieties of the English language (i.e. British English, Canadian English, etc.) use the letter U in words such as ''colour'', ''labour'', ''valour'', etc.; however, in American English the letter is not used and said words mentioned are spelled as ''color'' and so on. It is the thirteenth most frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 2.8% in words.

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, represents the close back rounded vowel or a similar vowel.

In French orthography the letter represents the close front rounded vowel (); is represented by . In Dutch and Afrikaans, it represents either , or a near-close near-front rounded vowel (); likewise the phoneme is represented by . In Welsh orthography the letter can represent a long close front unrounded vowel () or short near-close near-front unrounded vowel () in Southern dialects. In Northern dialects, the corresponding long and short vowels are a long close central unrounded vowel () and a short lowered close central unrounded vowel (), respectively. and are represented by .

Other uses

The symbol 'U' is the chemical symbol for uranium.

In the context of Newtonian mechanics 'U' is the symbol for the potential energy of a system.

'u' is the symbol for the atomic mass unit and 'U' is the symbol for one Enzyme unit.

In IPA, the close back rounded vowel is represented by the lower case ⟨u⟩.

U is also the source of the mathematical symbol ∪, representing a union. It is used mainly for Venn diagram