U

ISO basic Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
v t e

U, or u, is the twenty-first

History

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Proto-Sinaitic	Phoenician Waw	Western Greek Upsilon	Latin V	Latin U

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

In Greek, two letters were adapted from the Phoenician waw. The letter was adapted, but split in two, with Digamma or wau ⟨Ϝ⟩ being adapted to represent [w], and the second one being Upsilon ⟨Υ⟩, which was originally adapted to represent [u], later fronted, becoming [y].

In

.

Use in writing systems

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Pronunciation summary

Languages in italics are not usually written using the Latin alphabet
Language	Dialect(s)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Environment	Notes
Afrikaans		/y/
Mandarin Chinese[6]	Standard Chinese	/u/	After the Pinyin consonants ⟨b⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨zh⟩, ⟨ch⟩, ⟨sh⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨z⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨w⟩[6]	Pinyin romanization
		/y/	After the Pinyin consonants ⟨j⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨y⟩. To make the /y/ sound after the consonants ⟨n⟩ or ⟨l⟩, ⟨ü⟩ is used.[6]
Danish		/u/	Usually
		/ʊ/	Before two consonants
Dutch		/y/	Usually
		/œ/	Before two consonants
English		/ʌ/, /juː/, /uː/, /ʊ/, others		See English orthography
		/ɜː/, /jʊə/, /ʊə/	Before ⟨r⟩
		/w/	Following ⟨q⟩ or ⟨g⟩ and preceding a vowel
		Silent	Following ⟨q⟩ or ⟨g⟩ and preceding the vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩, usually in words of French origin
Esperanto		/u/
Faroese		/u/	Usually
		/ʊ/	Before two consonants
French		/y/	Usually
		/ɥ/	Before vowels
German		/u/	Usually
		/ʊ/	Before two consonants
Icelandic		/u/	Usually
		/ʏ/	Before two consonants
Indonesian[7]	Standard Indonesian	/u/	Always
Italian		/u/	Usually
		/w/	Before vowels
Japanese		/ɯ/	Usually
		Silent	Unstressed, between two consonants
Lithuanian		/ʊ/
Low German		/u/	Usually
		/ʊ/	Before two consonants
Malay		/u/	Usually
		/w/	Before vowels
Norwegian		/ʉ/	Usually
		/ɵ/	Before two consonants
Portuguese		/u/	Usually
		/w/	Before vowels
		/ɐ/	Only in some recent loanwords
Spanish		/u/	Usually
		/w/	Before vowels
Swedish		/ʉ/	Usually
		/ɵ/	Before two consonants
Turkish		/u/
Welsh	Northern dialects	/ ɨ̞/, /ɨː /
	Southern dialects	/ɪ/, /iː/

English

In

The letter ⟨u⟩ is used in the digraphs ⟨au⟩ /ɔː/, ⟨ou⟩ (various pronunciations, but usually /aʊ/), and with the value of long ⟨u⟩ in ⟨eu⟩, ⟨ue⟩, and in a few words ⟨ui⟩ (as in 'fruit'). It often has the sound /w/ before a vowel in the sequences ⟨qu⟩ (as in 'quick'), ⟨gu⟩ (as in 'anguish'), and ⟨su⟩ (as in 'suave'), though it is silent in final ⟨que⟩ (as in 'unique') and in many words with ⟨gu⟩ (as in 'guard').

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

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, ⟨u⟩ represents the close back rounded vowel /u/ or a similar vowel.^[8]

• In French orthography the letter represents the close front rounded vowel /y/; /u/ is represented by ⟨ou⟩.
• In Dutch and Afrikaans, it represents either /y/, or a near-close near-front rounded vowel /ʏ/; likewise, the phoneme /u/ is represented by ⟨oe⟩.
• In
  ɨ̞/, respectively. /uː/ and /ʊ
  / are represented by ⟨w⟩.

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses ⟨u⟩ for the close back rounded vowel.

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 the International Phonetic Alphabet, 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 diagrams and geometry.
• It is used as for micro- in metric measurements as a replacement for the Greek letter
  μm
  (micrometer).
• Some universities, such as the University of Miami and the University of Utah, are locally known as "The U".
• U (or sometimes RU) is a standard height unit of measure in rack units, with each U equal to 44.50 millimetres (1.75 in).
• U is used in the symbol of the World War II organization Ustaše.
• U is an honorific in Burmese.^[9]

Related characters

Ancestors, descendants and siblings

• ⟨𐤅‎⟩: Semitic letter Waw, from which the following symbols originally derive
  • ⟨Υ υ⟩: Greek letter Upsilon, from which U derives
    • ⟨V v⟩: Latin letter V, descended from U
      • ⟨W w⟩: Latin letter W, descended from V/U
    • ⟨Y y⟩: Latin letter Y, also descended from Upsilon
    • ⟨У у⟩:
      Cyrillic letter U
      , which also derives from Upsilon
    • ⟨Ү ү⟩: Cyrillic letter Ue
  • ⟨Ϝ ϝ⟩: Greek letter Digamma
    • ⟨F f⟩: Latin letter F, derived from Digamma
• IPA-specific symbols related to U: ⟨ʊ⟩^{[citation needed]} ⟨ɥ⟩
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to U:^[10]
  • U+1D1C ᴜ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL U
  • U+1D41 ᵁ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL U
  • U+1D58 ᵘ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL U
  • U+1D64 ᵤ LATIN SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER U
  • U+1D1D ᴝ LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS U
  • U+1D1E ᴞ LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS DIAERESIZED U
  • U+1D59 ᵙ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL SIDEWAYS U
• Teuthonista phonetic transcription-specific symbols related to U:^[11]
  • U+AB4E ꭎ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH SHORT RIGHT LEG
  • U+AB4F ꭏ LATIN SMALL LETTER U BAR WITH SHORT RIGHT LEG
  • U+AB51 ꭑ LATIN SMALL LETTER TURNED UI
  • U+AB52 ꭒ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH LEFT HOOK
  • U+AB5F ꭟ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL U WITH LEFT HOOK
• U+1DB8 ᶸ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL CAPITAL U: used for phonetic transcription^[12]
• ⟨Ꞿ ꞿ⟩: Glottal U, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic^[13]
• U with
  Ȗ ȗ⟩ ⟨Ű ű⟩ ⟨Ŭ ŭ⟩ ⟨Ư ư⟩ ⟨Ứ ứ⟩ ⟨Ừ ừ⟩ ⟨Ử ử⟩ ⟨Ự ự⟩ ⟨Ữ Ữ⟩ ⟨Ủ ủ⟩ ⟨Ū ū⟩ ⟨Ū̀ ū̀⟩ ⟨Ū́ ū́⟩ ⟨Ṻ ṻ⟩ ⟨Ū̃ ū̃⟩ ⟨Ũ ũ⟩ ⟨Ṹ ṹ⟩ ⟨Ṵ ṵ⟩ ⟨ᶙ⟩^[12] ⟨Ų ų Ų́ ų́ Ų̃ ų̃⟩ ⟨Ȕ ȕ⟩ ⟨Ů ů
  ⟩
  • U+A7B8 Ꞹ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U WITH STROKE and U+A7B9 ꞹ LATIN SMALL LETTER U WITH STROKE are used in the Mazahua language and feature a bar diacritic

Ligatures and abbreviations

• ∪: Union
• ∩: Intersection, an upside-down upper case "U"^{[citation needed]}

Other representations

Computing

Other

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Uniform	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling)	British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling )	Braille dots-136 Unified English Braille

Notes

References