Uk (Cyrillic)

Uk (Ѹ ѹ italics: Ѹ ѹ) is a digraph of the early Cyrillic alphabet, although commonly considered and used as a single letter. It is an accent nasal vowel from the Slavonic language. To save space, it was often written as a vertical ligature (Ꙋ ꙋ), called "monograph Uk". In modern times, ⟨ѹ⟩ has been replaced by the simple ⟨у⟩.

Not to be confused with O and Y. For other uses, see Oy (disambiguation).
Cyrillic letter Uk
Phonetic usage:/u/
Name (Early Cyrillic alphabet):оукъ
Numeric value:400
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЄ́ЖЗЗ́
ЅИІІ́ЇЇ́ꙆИ́
ЍИ̂ӢЙЈКЛЉ
МНЊОО́О̀О̂Ō
ӦПРСС́ТЋЌ
УУ́У̀У̂ӮЎӰФ
ХЦЧЏШЩꙎЪ
Ъ̀ЫЫ́ЬѢЭЭ́Ю
Ю́Ю̀ЯЯ́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌Ӷ
Д́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃
Ё̄Є̈ҖӜӁЖ̣ҘӞ
З̌З̣З̆ԐԐ̈ӠИ̃Ӥ
ҊҚӃҠҞҜК̣Ԛ
ᴫЛ́ӅԮԒЛ̈Ӎᵸ
Н́ӉҢԨӇҤО̆О̃
Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́Ө̆ӪԤҦ
П̈Р̌ҎС̌ҪС̣С̱Т́
Т̈Т̌Т̇Т̣ҬУ̃Ӳ
У̊Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́Х̣Х̱Х̮
Х̑Х̌ҲӼӾҺҺ̈Ԧ
Ц̌Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣ӴӋ
ҸЧ̇Ч̣ҼҾШ̈Ш̣ꚜ
Ы̆Ы̄ӸꚝҌҨЭ̆Э̄
Э̇ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̈́Ю̄
Я̆Я̄Я̈Я̈́Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂꚀꙢЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑ꙂꙄЏ̆
ꚄꚄ̆ꙀЗ̀З̑ԄԆꚈ
ԪꚂꚔІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃ꙈК̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠꙤԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃ꙦН̀Н̄Н̧Н̃
ԊԢН̡ѺꙨꙪꙬꙮ
ꚘꚚП̓П̀П́П̧
П̑ҀԚ̆Р́Р̀Р̃Ԗ
С̀С̈ԌҪ̓Т̓Т̀Ԏ
Т̑ꚊТ̧ꚌꚌ̆
ѸꙊУ̇У̨ꙋ́Ф̑Ф̓
Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇Х̧Х̓һ̱
ѠꙌѼѾꙠЦ̀Ц́Ц̓
ꚎꚎ̆ꚐЧ́Ч̀
Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓ԬꚒꚆ
Ꚇ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆ꚖꚖ̆
ꙐЫ̂Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆Ꙓ
Э̨Э̂ꙔЮ̂ꙖЯ̈
Я̂Я̨ԘѤѦꙘѪꙚ
ѨꙜѬѮѰѲѴѶ
Ꙟ

Development of the use of Uk in Old East Slavic
Monograph Uk ligature

The simplification of the digraph ⟨ѹ⟩ to ⟨у⟩ was first brought about in Old East Slavic texts and only later taken over into South Slavic languages.

One can see this development in the Novgorod birch-bark letters: The degree to which this letter was used here differed in two positions: in word-initial position or before a vowel (except for the jers), and after a consonant.

Before a consonant, ⟨ѹ⟩ was used 89% of the time in the writings before 1100. By 1200, it was used 61% of the time, with the letter ⟨у⟩ used 14% of the time; by 1300, ѹ had reached 28%, surpassed by ⟨у⟩ at 45%. From the late 14th century on, there are no more instances of ⟨ѹ⟩ being used in this position, with ⟨у⟩ appearing 95% of the time.

The decrease in usage was more gradual after a consonant. Although there are no instances of the use of ⟨у⟩ in this position before c. 1200, ⟨ѹ⟩ gradually decreased from 88% before 1100 to 57% by 1200. The frequency of ⟨ѹ⟩ remained steady between 47% and 44% until 1400, when it experienced another decrease to 32%. Meanwhile, the use of ⟨у⟩ increased from 4% in the early 13th century, to 20% by the mid-13th century, 38% by the mid 14th century, and 58% by the early 15th century.[1]

Representation on computers

The letter Uk was first represented in Unicode 1.1.0 as U+0478 and 0479, CYRILLIC CAPITAL/SMALL LETTER UK (Ѹ ѹ). It was later recognized that the glyph to be used for the letter had not been adequately specified, and it had been represented as either a digraph or monograph letter in different released fonts. There was also the difficulty that in written texts the letter may appear in lowercase (ѹ), uppercase (Ѹ), or in all caps (ОУ), which is possible to be used for heading.

To resolve this ambiguity, Unicode 5.1 has deprecated the use of the original code points, introduced U+A64A and A64B, CYRILLIC CAPITAL/SMALL LETTER MONOGRAPH UK (Ꙋ ꙋ), and recommends composing the digraph with two individual characters ⟨о⟩+⟨у⟩.[2]

Unicode 9.0 has also introduced U+1C82 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER NARROW O which can also be used for composing the digraph form (⟨ᲂ⟩+⟨у⟩) and U+1C88 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER UNBLENDED UK (ᲈ) as a variant of monograph form.[3][4]

However, the recommended method may cause some text representation problems. The letter У did not originally appear alone in the Old Church Slavonic orthography, and thus its code point was replaced in different Old Slavonic computer fonts with digraph or monograph forms of the Uk or with the tailed form of Izhitsa. Tailed Izhitsa may be used as a part of the digraph, but using the shape of the monograph Uk as a part of the digraph Uk (оꙋ) is incorrect.

The minuscule monograph Uk was used in the Romanian Transitional Alphabet to represent /u/, but due to font restrictions, the Ȣ ligature or Latin gamma are occasionally used instead.

Computing codes
Character information
PreviewОоᲂУу
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER O CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER O CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER NARROW O CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER U CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER U
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode1054U+041E1086U+043E7298U+1C821059U+04231091U+0443
UTF-8208 158D0 9E208 190D0 BE225 178 130E1 B2 82208 163D0 A3209 131D1 83
Numeric character referenceООооᲂᲂУУуу
Named character referenceОоУу
Character information
PreviewѸѹꙊꙋᲈ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER UK CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER UK CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER
MONOGRAPH UK		 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER
MONOGRAPH UK		 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER
UNBLENDED UK
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode1144U+04781145U+047942570U+A64A42571U+A64B7304U+1C88
UTF-8209 184D1 B8209 185D1 B9234 153 138EA 99 8A234 153 139EA 99 8B225 178 136E1 B2 88
Numeric character referenceѸѸѹѹꙊꙊꙋꙋᲈᲈ

References
  1. Зализняк, Андрей Анатольевич (2004). Древненовгородский диалект [Old Novgorod Dialect] (2nd ed.). Moscow: Языки Славянской Культуры. pp. 28–31. ISBN 5-94457-165-9.
  2. Everson, Michael; et al. (2007). "Proposal to encode additional Cyrillic characters in the BMP of the UCS" (application/pdf).
  3. "Cyrillic Extended-C: Range: 1C80–1C8F" (PDF). The Unicode Standard, Version 9.0. 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
  4. "Church Slavonic Typography in Unicode" (PDF). Aleksandr Andreev, Yuri Shardt, Nikita Simmons. 2015. pp. 13–15. Retrieved 2016-07-15.

Further reading
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