Uk (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter Uk

Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Ѓ	Д
Ђ	Е	Ё	Є	Ж	З	Ѕ
И	І	Ї	Й	Ј	К	Ќ
Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ	О	П
Р	С	Т	Ћ	У	Ў	Ф
Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш	Щ	Ъ
Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic Letters
Ӑ	Ә	Ӕ	Ҕ	Ӗ	Ғ	Ӏ
Ӂ	Җ	Ӝ	Ҙ	Ӟ	Ӡ	Ӣ
Ӥ	Ҡ	Қ	Ҟ	Ҝ	Ң	Ҥ
Ө	Ӧ	Ҧ	Ҫ	Ҷ	Ҹ	Ӵ
Ҽ	Ҿ	Ҩ	Ҳ	Һ	Ҭ	Ҵ
Ӳ	Ӯ	Ү	Ұ	Ӱ
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѻ	Ѣ	ІА
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ

Uk (Ѹ, ѹ) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. It was originally a digraph of О and У written horizontally. To save space, it was often written as a vertical ligature, and in modern times has been replaced by the simple У.

[edit] Borrowing from Greek

Both the horizontal and the vertical digraph were borrowed from the Greek alphabet. The Greek Ȣ ligature is frequently found in Greek medieval manuscripts and in some modern editions of classical texts. Modern Greek still uses ου (omicron-upsilon) for /u/ but no longer uses the vertical ligature.

[edit] Development of the use of Uk in Old East Slavic

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

One can see this development in the Novgorod birchbark 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 1300's 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. 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 1200s, to 20% by the mid-1200s, 38% by the mid 1300s, and 58% by the early 1400s.