- Short U
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Heading=Cyrillic letter Short U
uuc=040E|ulc=045EShort U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Belarusian
Cyrillic alphabet . The letter is called "non-syllabic u" or "short u" (Belarusian: у нескладовае, "u nyeskladovaye" or у кароткае, "u karotkaye") in Belarusian, because while resembling the vowel у ("u") it doesn't formsyllable s. Its equivalent in theBelarusian Latin alphabet is "ŭ ".This letter is not used in any other
Slavic language . Among the non-Slavic languages using Cyrillic alphabets, ў is used in theDungan language and in theSiberian Yupik language . It was also used in Uzbek before the adoption of theLatin alphabet in 1992.In Belarusian
In native Belarusian words, ў represents the
sonorant bilabial fricative consonant, [E.g., per "Беларуская мова: Вучэб. дапам. / Э. Д. Блінава, Н. В. Гаўрош, М. Ц. Кавалёва і інш.; Пад рэд. М. С. Яўневіча. — Мн. : Выш. школа, 1991. ISBN 5-339-00539-9."] as in хлеў IPA| [xlʲeʊ] ("xljeŭ", ‘shed’) or воўк IPA| [vɔʊk] ("voŭk", ‘wolf’). This is similar to the "w" in English "cow" IPA|/kaʊ/. The letter ў cannot occur before a vowel; when grammar would require this, ў is replaced by в IPA|/v/. Compare хлеў IPA| [xlʲeʊ] ("xljeŭ") with за хлявом IPA| [za xlʲaˈvom] ("za xljavóm", ‘behind the shed’). Also, when a word beginning with у IPA|/u/ follows a vowel, so that it forms a diphthong throughliaison , it is usually, but not necessary, written with ў instead. For example, у хляве IPA| [u xlʲaˈvʲe] ("u xljavjé", ‘in the shed’) but увайшлі яны ў хлеў IPA| [uvajʃˈlʲi jaˈnɨ ʊ xlʲeʊ] ("uvajšlí janý ŭ xljeŭ", ‘they went into the shed’).The letter ў is also used to represent the
labial-velar approximant IPA|/w/ in foreignloanwords .History
The letter originates from the letter
izhitsa (ѵ) with a breve (Іереѵ̆ская власть, пучина Егеѵ̆ская, etc.) used in certain Ukrainian books during the end of the 16th–beginning of the 17th centuries.Fact|date=July 2007 Later, this character was probably in use in the Romanian Cyrillic script, from where it was borrowed in1837 by the compilers of Ukrainian poetry book "Rusalka Dnistrovaya" (Русалка днѣстровая). The book's forward reads “we have accepted Serbian "џ" . . . and Wallachian [Romanian] "ў" . . .”. [“...приймилисмо сербскоє "џ" (виџу IPA|wydzu) и волоскоє "ў" ("аў", IPA|ɑʋ "Erazm. Rotterd.," script|Latf|
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