Short U (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter short U
Phonetic usage:	[w]
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Ѐ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И Ѝ Й І Ї Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О Ō П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У Ӯ Ў Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
Non-Slavic letters
А́ Ӑ А̄ А̊ А̃ Ӓ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ Ғ Г̑ Ҕ Ӻ Ӷ Д̆ Ӗ Е̄ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ӂ Җ Ӝ Ҙ Ӟ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Ӡ Ӣ И̃ Ҋ Ӥ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ Ԛ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Ӎ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ Ө Ө̄ Ӫ Ҩ Ԥ Р̌ Ҏ Ҫ Ҭ У̃ Ӱ Ӳ Ү Ү́ Ұ Х̑ Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Ԧ Ҵ Ҷ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ҽ Ҿ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ Ҍ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ԝ Ӏ
Archaic letters
Ꙁ Ꙃ Ꙅ Ꙇ Ꙉ Ҁ Ѻ ОУ Ꙋ Ѡ Ѽ Ꙍ Ѿ Ꙏ Ѣ Ꙑ Ꙓ Ꙕ Ꙗ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ԙ Ꙟ Ꙡ Ꙣ Ꙥ Ꙧ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ Ԁ Ԕ Ԗ Ԡ Ԣ Ҧ Ꚋ Ꚁ Ꚅ Ꚍ Ꚕ Ꚏ Ꚗ Ꚃ Ԃ Ԅ Ԉ Ԋ Ԍ Ԏ Ԇ Ꚑ Ꚉ Ꚇ Ꚓ Ԟ Ԙ Ԫ Ԭ Г̧ Г̄
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs
v t

Short U (Ў ў; italics: Ў ў) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. The only Slavic language using this letter in its orthography is Belarusian, though it is used as a phonetic symbol in some Russian and Ukrainian dictionaries.^[1] Among the non-Slavic languages using Cyrillic alphabets, ў is used in Dungan, Karakalpak, Mansi, Sakhalin Nivkh, and Siberian Yupik. It is also used in Uzbek – this letter corresponds to Oʻ in the Uzbek Latin alphabet.

History[]

The letter originates from the letter izhitsa ⟨Ѵ ѵ⟩ with a breve (Іереѵ̆ская власть, пучина Егеѵ̆ская, etc.) used in certain Ukrainian books at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries.^{[citation needed]} Later, this character was probably in use in the Romanian Cyrillic script, from where it was borrowed in 1837 by the compilers of Ukrainian poetry book Rusalka Dnistrovaja (Русалка днѣстровая). The book's foreword reads “we have accepted Serbian џ … and Wallachian [Romanian] ў …”.^[2] In this book, ⟨ў⟩ is used mostly for etymological [l] transformed to [w]. Modern Ukrainian spelling uses ⟨в⟩ ([v]) in that position.

For Belarusian, the combination of the Cyrillic letter U with a breve ⟨ў⟩ was proposed by P.A. Bessonov in 1870.^[3] Before that, various ad hoc adaptations of the Latin U were used, for example, italicized in some publications of Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich, with acute accent ⟨ú⟩ in Jan Czeczot's Da milykh mužyczkoú (To dear peasants, 1846 edition), W with breve ⟨w̆⟩ in Epimakh-Shypila, 1889, or just the letter ⟨u⟩ itself (like in publications of Konstanty Kalinowski, 1862–1863). A U with haček ⟨ǔ⟩ was also used.^[4]

After 1870, both the distinction for the phoneme and the new shape of the letter still were not consistently used until the mid-1900s for technical problems, per Bulyka. Among the first publications using it were folklore collections published by Michał Federowski and the first edition of Francišak Bahuševič's Dudka Biełaruskaja (Belarusian flute, published in Kraków, 1891).^[4] For quite a while other kinds of renderings (plain ⟨u⟩, or with added accent, haček, or caret) were still being used, sometimes within a single publication (Bahushevich, 1891, Pachobka, 1915), also supposedly because of technical problems.^{[citation needed]}

Usage[]

Belarusian[]

The letter is called non-syllabic u or short u (Belarusian: у нескладовае, u nieskładovaje^[5] or у кароткае, u karotkaje) in Belarusian because although it resembles the vowel у (u), it does not form syllables.^{[citation needed]} Its equivalent in the Belarusian Latin alphabet is ⟨ŭ⟩,^[6] although it is also sometimes transcribed as ⟨w⟩.^[7]

In native Belarusian words, ⟨ў⟩ represents a [w],^[8] as in хлеў, pronounced [xlʲew] (chleŭ, ‘shed’) or воўк [vɔwk] (voŭk, ‘wolf’). This is similar to the ⟨w⟩ in English cow /kaʊ/.

The letter ⟨ў⟩ cannot occur before a non-iotified vowel in native words; when that would be required by grammar, ⟨ў⟩ is replaced by ⟨в⟩ /v/. Compare хлеў ([xlʲew] chleŭ) with за хлявом ([za xlʲaˈvom] za chlavóm, ‘behind the shed’). Also, when a word starts with ⟨у⟩ /u/ and follows a vowel and so it forms a diphthong through liaison, it is usually, but not necessarily, written with ⟨ў⟩ instead. For example, у хляве ([u xlʲaˈvʲe] u chlavié, ‘in the shed’) but увайшлі яны ў хлеў ([uvajʂˈlʲi jaˈnɨ w xlʲew] uvajšlí janý ŭ chleŭ, ‘they went into the shed’).^[5][9]

The letter ⟨ў⟩ is also sometimes used to represent the labial-velar approximant /w/ in foreign loanwords: this usage is allowed by the 2005 standardization of Taraškievica. When it is used thus it can appear before non-iotified vowels.^[5]

Uzbek[]

This letter is the 32nd letter of the Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet. It corresponds to Oʻ in the current Uzbek alphabet. It is different from the regular O, which is represented by the Cyrillic letter О. Furthermore, it is pronounced as either [o] or [ø], in contrast to the letter O, which is pronounced as [ɒ].^[10]

Monument[]

In September 2003, during the tenth celebrations, the authorities in Polatsk, the oldest Belarusian city, made a monument to honor the unique Cyrillic Belarusian letter ⟨ў⟩. The original idea for the monument came from professor , a scholar of Cyrillic calligraphy and type.^[11]

Computing codes[]

See also[]

• Breve

Notes[]