U (Indic)

U
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan
Tamil
Malayalam	ഉ
Sinhala	උ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ו
Greek	Ϝ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
Latin	F, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
Cyrillic	Ѕ, У (Ꙋ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation	/u/ /ʊ/
IAST transliteration	ū Ū
ISCII code point	A8 (168)

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U is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, U is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, U comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration[]

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The उ sign ु was used to modify a consonant's value ×10⁴, but the vowel letter did not have an inherent value by itself.^[1]

Historic U[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. U as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian U has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including U are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi U[]

The Brahmi letter U , is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Waw , and is thus related to the modern Latin F, V, U, W, Y and Greek Upsilon.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi U can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi U historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian U[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi . Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian consonants with U vowel marks

Ku	Khu	Gu	Ghu	Cu	Chu	Ju	Jhu	Nyu	Ṭu	Ṭhu	Ḍu	Ḍhu	Ṇu
Tu	Thu	Du	Dhu	Nu	Pu	Phu	Bu	Bhu	Mu	Yu	Ru	Lu	Vu
Śu	Ṣu	Su	Hu

Kharoṣṭhī U[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter U is indicated with the vowel mark . As an independent vowel, U is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A .

Devanagari U[]

Devanagari independent U and U vowel sign.

U (उ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઉ, and the Modi letter