U
Example glyphs
Bengali-Assamese
Tibetan
Tamil
Malayalam	ഉ
Sinhala	උ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ו
Greek	Ϝ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
Latin	F, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
Cyrillic	Ѕ, У (Ꙋ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation	/u/ /ʊ/
IAST transliteration	ū Ū
ISCII code point	A8 (168)

U is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, U is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, U comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The उ sign ु was used to modify a consonant's value ×10⁴, but the vowel letter did not have an inherent value by itself.^[1]

Historic U

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. U as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian U has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including U are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi U

The Brahmi letter U , is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Waw , and is thus related to the modern Latin F, V, U, W, Y and Greek Upsilon.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi U can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi U historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian U

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi . Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian consonants with U vowel marks

Ku	Khu	Gu	Ghu	Cu	Chu	Ju	Jhu	Nyu	Ṭu	Ṭhu	Ḍu	Ḍhu	Ṇu
Tu	Thu	Du	Dhu	Nu	Pu	Phu	Bu	Bhu	Mu	Yu	Ru	Lu	Vu
Śu	Ṣu	Su	Hu

Devanagari U

Devanagari independent U and U vowel sign.

U (उ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઉ, and the Modi letter 𑘄.

Bengali U

Bengali independent U and U vowel sign.

U (উ) is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, उ.

Gujarati U

Gujarati independent U and U vowel sign.

U (ઉ) is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari U , and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Javanese U

Telugu U

Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign U.

U (ఉ) is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಉ. Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Vowel signs in Telugu can interact with a base consonant in one of three ways: 1) the vowel sign touches or sits adjacent to the base consonant without modifying the shape of either 2) the vowel sign sits directly above the consonant, replacing its v-shaped headline, 3) the vowel sign and consonant interact, forming a ligature.

Telugu U vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Ku, Khu, Gu, Ghu and Ngu. As a right-side attaching vowel mark, it does not alter the shape of the underlying consonant, although there are variants of the vowel mark that attach in different ways.

Malayalam U

Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign U.

U (ഉ) is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter u. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. Some vowel signs, such as U, can also form a ligature with some consonants, although this is much more common in old-style paḻaya lipi texts than in the modern reformed paḻaya lipi orthography.

Malayalam U vowel sign on ക, ഖ, ഗ, ഘ, & ങ: Ku, Khu, Gu, Ghu and Ngu in paḻaya lipi.

Odia U

Odia independent vowel and vowel sign U.

U (ଉ) is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter u. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Kaithi U

Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign U.

U (𑂇) is a vowel of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter U. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Kaithi usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Kaithi.

Comparison of U

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including U, are related as well.

Comparison of U in different scripts

Aramaic Kharoṣṭhī 𐨂 Ashoka Brahmi Kushana Brahmi[lower-alpha 1] Tocharian[lower-alpha 2] Gupta Brahmi Pallava Kadamba - Bhaiksuki 𑰄 Siddhaṃ Grantha 𑌉 Cham ꨂ Sinhala උ Pyu / Old Mon[lower-alpha 3] - Tibetan Newa 𑐄 Ahom 𑜤 Malayalam ഉ Telugu ఉ Burmese ဥ Lepcha ᰪ Ranjana Saurashtra ꢆ Dives Akuru 𑤄 Kannada ಉ Kayah Li ꤨ Limbu ᤢ Soyombo[lower-alpha 4] 𑩓 Khmer ឧ / ុ Tamil Chakma 𑄅 Tai Tham ᩏ / ᩩ Meitei Mayek ꯨ Gaudi - Thai ุ Lao ຸ Tai Le ᥧ Marchen 𑲲 Tirhuta 𑒅 New Tai Lue ᦳ Tai Viet ꪴ Aksara Kawi - 'Phags-pa ꡟ Odia ଉ Sharada 𑆇 Rejang ꥈ Batak ᯥ Buginese ᨘ Zanabazar Square 𑨃 Bengali-Assamese Takri 𑚄 Javanese ꦈ Balinese ᬉ Makasar 𑻴 Hangul[lower-alpha 5] - Northern Nagari - Dogri 𑠄 Laṇḍā - Sundanese ᮅ Baybayin ᜂ Modi 𑘄 Gujarati ઉ Khojki 𑈃 Khudabadi 𑊴 Mahajani 𑅒 Tagbanwa ᝢ Devanagari Nandinagari 𑦤 Kaithi Gurmukhi ਉ Multani 𑊂 Buhid ᝂ Canadian Syllabics[lower-alpha 6] - Soyombo[lower-alpha 7] 𑩓 Sylheti Nagari ꠃ Gunjala Gondi 𑵤 Masaram Gondi[lower-alpha 8] 𑴄 Hanuno'o ᜢ Notes ↑ The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms. ↑ Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession. ↑ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script ↑ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table) ↑ The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida. ↑ Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas. ↑ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above) ↑ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of U

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter U in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. U from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information

Preview							ఉ		ଉ		ಉ		ഉ		ઉ		ਉ
Unicode name	DEVANAGARI LETTER U		BENGALI LETTER U		TAMIL LETTER U		TELUGU LETTER U		ORIYA LETTER U		KANNADA LETTER U		MALAYALAM LETTER U		GUJARATI LETTER U		GURMUKHI LETTER U
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	2313	U+0909	2441	U+0989	2953	U+0B89	3081	U+0C09	2825	U+0B09	3209	U+0C89	3337	U+0D09	2697	U+0A89	2569	U+0A09
UTF-8	224 164 137	E0 A4 89	224 166 137	E0 A6 89	224 174 137	E0 AE 89	224 176 137	E0 B0 89	224 172 137	E0 AC 89	224 178 137	E0 B2 89	224 180 137	E0 B4 89	224 170 137	E0 AA 89	224 168 137	E0 A8 89
Numeric character reference	उ	उ	উ	উ	உ	உ	ఉ	ఉ	ଉ	ଉ	ಉ	ಉ	ഉ	ഉ	ઉ	ઉ	ਉ	ਉ
ISCII	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8	168	A8

Character information

Preview	Ashoka Kushana Gupta				𑌉
Unicode name	BRAHMI LETTER U		SIDDHAM LETTER U		GRANTHA LETTER U
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	69641	U+11009	71044	U+11584	70409	U+11309
UTF-8	240 145 128 137	F0 91 80 89	240 145 150 132	F0 91 96 84	240 145 140 137	F0 91 8C 89
UTF-16	55300 56329	D804 DC09	55301 56708	D805 DD84	55300 57097	D804 DF09
Numeric character reference	𑀉	𑀉	𑖄	𑖄	𑌉	𑌉

Character information

Preview	𑘄		𑦤		𑩓		ꠃ		𑵤
Unicode name	MODI LETTER U		NANDINAGARI LETTER U		SOYOMBO VOWEL SIGN U		SYLOTI NAGRI LETTER U		GUNJALA GONDI LETTER U		KAITHI LETTER U
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	71172	U+11604	72100	U+119A4	72275	U+11A53	43011	U+A803	73060	U+11D64	69767	U+11087
UTF-8	240 145 152 132	F0 91 98 84	240 145 166 164	F0 91 A6 A4	240 145 169 147	F0 91 A9 93	234 160 131	EA A0 83	240 145 181 164	F0 91 B5 A4	240 145 130 135	F0 91 82 87
UTF-16	55301 56836	D805 DE04	55302 56740	D806 DDA4	55302 56915	D806 DE53	43011	A803	55303 56676	D807 DD64	55300 56455	D804 DC87
Numeric character reference	𑘄	𑘄	𑦤	𑦤	𑩓	𑩓	ꠃ	ꠃ	𑵤	𑵤	𑂇	𑂇

References