The letter âuâ is a workhorse of the alphabet. It occurs so frequently that it will earn you only one point in Scrabble. Even so, it flies under the radar, escaping our notice. Now, texting threatens to elevate it to a pronoun. Have we underestimated this unassuming letter? The time has come for a closer look.
The letter derives from a character in the Phoenician script, attested from the eleventh century B.C.E,. that originated as a pictogram of a hook, but also a sound transliterated as wÄw. As the Phoenician script spread through the Mediterranean world, neighboring cultures adapted it to their own languages. In Greek, it became the upsilonâ΄, or Ï
in the lower case. In Latin, it became the v, which, despite its appearance, had the phonological value of our long u. The current, rounded form did not emerge in the Latin alphabet until the second century, when a book script developed that lost the angularity of earlier Roman scripts principally used for carving into stone.Â
The two forms coexisted throughout the medieval period. Its two forms, and the two strokes needed to form the letter, gave scholars much food for thought. A Carolingian scholar asked, âWhat is meant by its two strokes? And what do its two forms meanâthe first oblique and the second straight? The first signifies evil speech and the last, good speech.â These same features prompted another scholar to the following ruminations: âHow wide and spacious is life that leads to death! And how narrow and confined is the way that leads to life!â
We like the notion of a letter with an evil twin. Here are a few examples from our pre-1650 holdings. All are examples of the rounded form of u, but we hope the sentiments they help express do not lead you down the wayward path. Read more here. JC
ellievsbear
izzy806
origamiaround
