U short

Short U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the short semi-vowel /u̯/ in the Belarusian language, pronounced similarly to W in English. Its equivalent in the Belarusian Latin alphabet (Łacinka) is Ŭ/ŭ.

This unique Cyrillic letter is not used in any other Slavic language except for Belarusian, but it was used in other non-Slavic languages of the Soviet Union, namely Azeri (in 1938–1991 when Cyrillic was mandated by the Soviet Union), and in the Tatar language, as well as several others.

Phonetics

It is a voiced labiovelar semivowel, like /w/ in window. It is called non-syllabic u (u nieskladovaje) in Belarusian, because by virtue of being a semivowel it can't form syllables.

History

The letter first appeared in Belarusian Łacinka in the 1860s or 1870s. The first Belarusian writers who introduced the letter were Jan Czeczot (Czaczot) and Vincent Dunin-Marcinkiewicz. But the first publication that used this distinct Belarusian letter Ŭ/ŭ as we know it today, was the first edition of Franciszak Bahuszewicz "Dudka Białaruskaja", published in Krakow in 1891. In earlier Jan Czeczot's Vilnia publications, for example in 1846 edition Da milych mužyczkoú, that letter was already used, but it was printed as a "u" with an accent mark (ú).

In the late 1890s and beginning of the 20th century the letter started appearing in Cyrillic publications in its modern shape Ў.

Monument

In September 2003, during the tenth celebration of "Days of Belarusian Literacy", 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 the Belarusian calligraphy professor Paval Siemchanka who has studied Cyrillic type for many years.