Short U

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Short U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Belarusian Cyrillic alphabet. It is called non-syllabic u (u nieskładovaje) in Belarusian, because as the semivowel equivalent of у (u) it does not form syllables. Its equivalent in the Belarusian Latin alphabet is ŭ.

In native Belarusan words, ў represents the high back semivowel /u̯/ in diphthongs, as in хлеў (chleŭ) 'shed' or воўк (voŭk) 'wolf'. This is similar to the w in English cow and low. The letter ў cannot occur before a vowel; when grammar would require this, ў is replaced by в (v). Compare хлеў (chleŭ) 'shed' with за хлявом (za chlavom) 'behind the shed'. Also, when a word beginning with у (u) follows a vowel, so that it forms a diphthong through liaison, it is written with ў. For example, у хляве (u chlavie) 'in the shed' but увайшлі яны ў хлеў (uvajšli jany ŭ chleŭ) 'they went in the shed'.

The letter ў is also used to represent the labial-velar approximant /w/ in foreign borrowings, such as тўід (tŭid) 'tweed', Ўэлз (Ŭelz) 'Wales', and ўіскі (ŭiski) 'whiskey'. However, most Belarusians have trouble with the [w] sound, and tend to pronounce ў as в (v) in such words, just as they do in native words.

This letter is not used in any other Slavic language. Among the non-Slavic languages using Cyrillic alphabets, ў is used in the Dungan language and in the Siberian Eskimo (Yuit) language. It was also used in Uzbek before the adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1992. It is also used in the Tajik alphabet.

History

The letter first appeared in Belarusian Łacinka in the 1860s or 1870s. Belarusian writers Jan Čačot and Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievič introduced the letter. But the first publication that used this distinct Belarusian letter ŭ as we know it today was the first edition of Francišak Bahuševič's "Dudka Biełaruskaja" ("Дудка беларуская"), published in Kraków, 1891. In Jan Čačot's earlier Vilnia publications, for example in the 1846 edition of Da milych mužyczkoú, ("Да мілых мужыкоў") that letter was already used, but it was printed as ú with an accent mark.

In the late 1890s and beginning of the twentieth century the letter started appearing in Cyrillic publications in its modern shape ў.

Monument

In September 2003, during the tenth Days of Belarusian Literacy celebrations, the city authorities of the oldest Belarusian city Polatsk made a monument to honor the unique Cyrillic Belarusian letter ў. The original idea for the monument came from Belarusian professor Paval Siemčanka, who has studied Cyrillic calligraphy and type for many years.

Short U

History

Monument

See also