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U, or u, is the twenty-first letter and the fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is u (pronounced Template:IPAc-en), plural ues.^[1][2][3]Template:EfnTemplate:Cfy

In English, the name of the letter is the “long U” sound, pronounced Template:IPAc-en. In most other languages, its name matches the letter’s pronunciation in open syllables.

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U derives from the Semitic waw, as does F, and later, Y, W, and V. Its oldest ancestor goes back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, and is probably from a hieroglyph of a mace or fowl, representing the sound Template:IPAblink or the sound Template:IPAblink. This was borrowed to Phoenician, where it represented the sound Template:IPAblink, and seldom the vowel Template:IPAblink.

In Greek, two letters were adapted from the Phoenician waw. The letter was adapted, but split in two, with Digamma or wau Template:Angbr being adapted to represent Template:IPAblink, and the second one being Upsilon Template:Angbr, which was originally adapted to represent Template:IPAblink, later fronted, becoming Template:IPAblink.

In Latin, a stemless variant shape of the upsilon was borrowed in early times as U, taking the form of modern-day VTemplate:Sndeither directly from the Western Greek alphabet or from the Etruscan alphabet as an intermediaryTemplate:Sndto represent the same Template:IPAslink sound, as well as the consonantal Template:IPAslink, numTemplate:Sndoriginally spelled NVMTemplate:Sndwas pronounced Template:IPA and via was pronounced Template:IPA-la.Template:Cfy From the 1st century AD on, depending on Vulgar Latin dialect, consonantal Template:IPAslink developed into Template:IPAslink (kept in Spanish), then later to Template:IPAslink.

During the late Middle Ages, two minuscule forms developed, which were both used for Template:IPAslink or the vowel Template:IPAslink. The pointed form Template:Angbr was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form Template:Angbr 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 Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr as distinct letters is in a Gothic alphabet from 1386, where Template:Angbr preceded Template:Angbr. Printers eschewed capital Template:Angbr in favor of Template:Angbr into the 17th century and the distinction between the two letters was not fully accepted by the French Academy until 1762.^[4][5]Template:Better source needed The rounded variant became the modern-day version of U and its former pointed form became V.

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In English, the letter Template:Angle brackets has four main pronunciations. There are “long” and “short” pronunciations. Short Template:Angbr, found originally in closed syllables, most commonly represents Template:IPAslink (as in ‘duck’), though it retains its old pronunciation Template:IPAslink after labial consonants in some words (as in ‘put’) and occasionally elsewhere (as in ‘sugar’). Long Template:Angbr, found originally in words of French origin (the descendant of Old English long Template:Angbr was respelled as Template:Angbr), most commonly represents Template:IPAc-en (as in ‘mule’), reducing to Template:IPAslink after Template:Angbr (as in ‘rule’), Template:Angbr (as in ‘June’) and sometimes (or optionally) after Template:Angbr (as in ‘lute’), and after additional consonants in American English (a do–dew merger). (After Template:Angbr, Template:IPA have assimilated to Template:IPA in some words.)Template:Cfy

The letter Template:Angbr is used in the digraphs Template:Angbr Template:IPAslink, Template:Angbr (various pronunciations, but usually Template:IPA), and with the value of long Template:Angbr in Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, and in a few words Template:Angbr (as in ‘fruit’). It often has the sound Template:IPAslink before a vowel in the sequences Template:Angbr (as in ‘quick’), Template:Angbr (as in ‘anguish’), and Template:Angbr (as in ‘suave’), though it is silent in final Template:Angbr (as in ‘unique’) and in many words with Template:Angbr (as in ‘guard’).

Additionally, the letter Template:Angbr is used in text messaging, the Internet, and other written slang to denote ‘you’, by virtue of both being pronounced Template:IPAc-en.

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. In American English, the letter is not used, and the words mentioned are spelled as color and so on.

It is the thirteenth most frequently used letter in the English language,Template:When with a frequency of about 2.8% in words.(Chinese)

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, Template:Angbr represents the close back rounded vowel Template:IPAslink or a similar vowel.^[8]

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses Template:Angbr IPA for the close back rounded vowel.

See also: U (disambiguation)

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• U is used as the symbol of the World War II organization Ustaše.
• U is an honorific in Burmese.^[9]

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1. ↑ Template:Cite OED2
2. ↑ Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1993. 
3. ↑ Brown, Goold; Kiddle, Henry (1870). The institutes of English grammar. New York, W. Wood & co.. p. 19. Archived from the original. You must specify the date the archive was made using the |archivedate= parameter. https://archive.org/details/institutesofen00bro/page/19. 
4. ↑ cf. “U,” in Dictionnaire de l’Académie Françoise, 4th ed., 2: 893. 2 vols. Paris: Chez la Veuve de Bernard Brunet, Imprimeur de l’Académie Françoiſe, 1762. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k12803850/f901.item; and “U,” in Dictionnaire de l’Académie Françoise, 4th ed., 2: 893. 2 vols. Paris: Chez la Veuve de Bernard Brunet, Imprimeur de l’Académie Françoiſe, 1762. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k12803850/f901.item.
5. ↑ Pflughaupt, Laurent (2008). Letter by Letter: An Alphabetical Miscellany. Princeton Architectural Press. pp. 123–124. ISBN 978-1-56898-737-8. Archived from the original. You must specify the date the archive was made using the |archivedate= parameter. https://archive.org/details/letterbyletteral0000pflu. 
6. ↑ “Phonology of Mandarin Chinese: Pinyin vs. IPA” —  January 2015
7. ↑ “Indonesian Alphabet and Pronunciation” —  {{{date}}}
8. ↑ “Latin” —  {{{date}}}
9. ↑ Pun, Sharon (2018-08-04). “The meaning behind Myanmar names“. Frontier Myanmar. Archived from the original. You must specify the date the archive was made using the |archivedate= parameter. https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/the-meaning-behind-myanmar-names/. 
10. ↑ “L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS” —  2002-03-20
11. ↑ “L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode “Teuthonista” phonetic characters in the UCS” —  2011-06-02
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3} “L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS” —  2004-04-19
13. ↑ “L2/17-076R2: Revised proposal for the encoding of an Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic characters” —  2017-05-09
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} “L2/16-032: Proposal to encode two Latin characters for Mazahua” —  2016-01-22