Ʊ Explained

Ʊ
Letter:Ʊ ʊ
Imagealt:Upper and lower case Latin upsilon
Script:Latin script
Type:Alphabet
Typedesc:ic and Logographic
Unicode:U+01B1, U+028A
Fam1:G43T3
Direction:Left-to-Right

The letter Ʊ (minuscule: ʊ), called horseshoe or sometimes bucket, inverted omega or Latin upsilon, is a letter of the International Phonetic Alphabet used to transcribe a near-close near-back rounded vowel. Graphically, the lower case is a turned small-capital Greek letter omega (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Ω) in many typefaces (e.g. Arial, Calibri, Candara, Liberation, Lucida, Noto, Times New Roman), and historically it derives from a small-capital Latin U (ᴜ), with the serifs exaggerated to make them more visible.[1] However, Geoffrey Pullum interpreted it as an IPA variant of the Greek letter upsilon (υ) and called it Latin upsilon, the name that would be adopted by Unicode, though in IPA an actual Greek upsilon is also used for the voiced labiodental approximant; Pullum called this letter script V[2] and Unicode calls it V with hook.

Horseshoe is used in the African reference alphabet, and national alphabets such as those of Anii[3] and Tem. It most often has the value of /u/ with retracted tongue root.

Use on computers

The majuscule and the minuscule are located at U+01B1[4] and U+028A[5] in Unicode, respectively.

Derived characters are and .[6]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Small-cap (IPA|ᴜ) was rounded to modern (IPA|ʊ) in 1904, but continued with its original shape in Americanist usage.Association phonétique internationale. 1904. Aim and Principles of the International Phonetic Association. Le Maître Phonétique. 19. 11. Supplement. 44703664.
  2. Book: Pullum. Geoffrey K.. Geoffrey K. Pullum . Ladusaw. William A.. 1996. Phonetic Symbol Guide. Second. University of Chicago Press. 0-226-68536-5. 185. Phonetic Symbol Guide.
  3. Book: Alphabet des langues nationales béninoises. Ministère de l’Alphabétisation et de la Promotion des langues nationales, Centre national de linguistique appliquée, Benin. fr. 2008. 25931062M.
  4. Web site: IPA Extensions.
  5. Web site: Latin Extended-B.
  6. Web site: L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS. 2004-04-19. Peter. Constable.