The Letter U - the 21 Letter of the Alphabet

THE LETTER U - THE 21 LETTER OF THE ALPHABET. In the Semitic alphabet the letter y (vau) was sixth in order, and represented a labial spirant (equivalent to English v or w). The Greeks used the letter to represent a vowel and placed it last in their aphabet following T (tau). In the place occupied by ) (you) in the Semitic alphabet the western Greek alphabets had the letter digamma F, which they used to represent the bilabial spirant (modern English w), a sound that had fallen out of use in the eastern dialects. Greek forms of the letter were y, or v and the last of these passed from the Chalcidic alphabet into Latin. The form was identical in both the Etruscan and Lydian alphabets.

The Latins, who at first used the combination

F H to express the unvoiced labial spirant (English f), came under Etruscan influence to represent this sound by F alone. Thus, this letter, which in Greek had represented the bilabial spirant (English w), was no longer available, and v had to do duty for both the vowel (English u) and the bilabial spirant (English w). In later Latin before the separation of the Romance languages the bilabial passed into the voiced spirant equivalent to English v. Meanwhile, while the majuscule letter retained its form V, the minuscule and uncial had a rounded form, e.g., U, (uncial), A. (cursive of the 6th century) and, later, Carolingian U, Thus the letter passed into the mediaeval hands having the majuscule pointed form V and the minuscule rounded form u and representing two sounds, the vowel (u) and the spirant (v). In the later middle ages a differentiation took place similar to that between the letters i and 5. The majuscule form, being generally used initially, came to

represent the consonant, which usually occurred initially, in ali positions ; while the rounded form was used exclusively for the vowel. As a result a minuscule v and a majuscule U were adapted for use when required. The differentiation was wise and useful, and reversed the process by which in the Latin alphabet the single symbol had done duty for both consonant and vowel.

In Attic Greek the sound represented by the letter was a high front rounded vowel (similar to French u, German U). In Latin the vowel was a middle high rounded one (similar to the sound of oo in shoot). In modern English short u has become in most positions a low middle vowel closely resembling the original sound of short a (e.g., in the words but, dumb). There are cer tain exceptions, however (cf. bull, bush, put). The long vowel has within the last two hundred years developed a palatal spirant (the sound of y) before it, except when it follows a liquid (r or 1). Contrast the sound of the pure vowel in the word brute with that in the words huge, rebuke. This change is sufficiently recent for such words as begin with long is (e.g., University) to be preceded, when the indefinite article is required, by the form an, not a, showing that the sound was a pure vowel sound. It is still so pronounced in certain cases in the United States of America. It is an interesting fact that this change was exactly paralleled in the Boeotian dialect of Greek. (B. F. C. A.)