Ū is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ū is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter uu. As an Indic vowel, Ū comes in two normally distinct forms: as an independent letter and as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Ū
Ū
Example glyphs
Bengali–AssameseŪ
Tibetan
ཨཱུ
TamilŪ
Thai
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka BrahmiŪ
DevanagariŪ
Cognates
Hebrewו
GreekϜ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
LatinF, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
CyrillicЅ, У (Ӯ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation/uː/
IAST transliterationū Ū
ISCII code pointA9 (169)

Āryabhaṭa numeration

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

Historic Ū

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There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ū as found in standard Brahmi,   was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gujarat  . Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Ū   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 Ū are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Ū

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The Brahmi letter Ū  , 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 Ū 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 some vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Ū historic forms
Ashoka
(3rd-1st c. BCE)
Girnar
(~150 BCE)
Kushana
(~150-250 CE)
Gujarat
(~250 CE)
Gupta
(~350 CE)
  No sample No sample   No sample

Tocharian Ū

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

Tocharian consonants with Ū vowel marks
Khū Ghū Chū Jhū Nyū Ṭū Ṭhū Ḍū Ḍhū Ṇū
               
Thū Dhū Phū Bhū
                         
Śū Ṣū
       

Kharoṣṭhī Ū

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The Kharoṣṭhī letter Ū is indicated with the U vowel mark   plus the vowel length mark  . As an independent vowel, Ū is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A  .

Devanagari Ū

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Devanagari independent Ū and Ū vowel sign.

Ū () is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘅.

Devanagari Using Languages

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The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ऊ is pronounced as [uː]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Ū

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Bengali independent Ū and Ū vowel sign.

Ū () 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, ऊ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

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The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ঊ is pronounced as [uː]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Ū

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Gujarati independent Ū and Ū vowel sign.

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

Gujarati-using Languages

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The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઊ is pronounced as [u]; there is no phonemic distinction from U (ઉ) in Gujarati. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel. In addition to the standard vowel sign, Ū forms a unique ligature when combined with the consonant R:

  • ર (r) + ઊ (ū) gives the ligature રૂ (rū):

 

Telugu Script

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Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Ū.

Ū () is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  . It is closely related to the Kannada letter . 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 Ū vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kū, Khū, Gū, Ghū and Ngū. 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 Ū

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Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ū.

Ū () is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Grantha letter   uu. 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 Ū, 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 Ū vowel sign on ക, ഖ, ഗ, ഘ, & ങ: Kū, Khū, Gū, Ghū and Ngū in paḻaya lipi.

Odia Ū

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Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Ū.

Ū () is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Siddhaṃ letter   uu. 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 Ū

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Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign Ū.

Ū (𑂈) is a vowel of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter  , via the Siddhaṃ letter   Uu. 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 Ū

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

Comparison of Ū in different scripts
Aramaic
 
Kharoṣṭhī
-
Ashoka Brahmi
 
Kushana Brahmi[a]
𑀊
Tocharian[b]
-
Gupta Brahmi
𑀊
Pallava
-
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰅
Siddhaṃ
 
Grantha
𑌊
Cham
-
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[c]
-
Tibetan
ཨཱུ
Newa
𑐅
Ahom
𑜥
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
Ranjana
 
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
𑤅
Kannada
Kayah Li
-
Limbu
-
Soyombo[d]
-
Khmer
Tamil
 
Chakma
𑄫
Tai Tham
ᩐ / ᩪ
Meitei Mayek
Gaudi
-
Thai
Lao
Tai Le
-
Marchen
-
Tirhuta
𑒆
New Tai Lue
Tai Viet
-
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
-
Odia
Sharada
𑆈
Rejang
-
Batak
-
Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
-
Bengali-Assamese
 
Takri
𑚅
Javanese
Balinese
Makasar
-
Hangul[e]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
𑠅
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
-
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘅
Gujarati
Khojki
-
Khudabadi
𑊵
Mahajani
-
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
 
Nandinagari
𑦥
Kaithi
 
Gurmukhi
Multani
-
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[f]
-
Soyombo[g]
-
Sylheti Nagari
-
Gunjala Gondi
𑵥
Masaram Gondi[h]
𑴅
Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. ^ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. ^ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.


Character encodings of Ū

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

Character information
Preview      
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER UU BENGALI LETTER UU TAMIL LETTER UU TELUGU LETTER UU ORIYA LETTER UU KANNADA LETTER UU MALAYALAM LETTER UU GUJARATI LETTER UU GURMUKHI LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 2314 U+090A 2442 U+098A 2954 U+0B8A 3082 U+0C0A 2826 U+0B0A 3210 U+0C8A 3338 U+0D0A 2698 U+0A8A 2570 U+0A0A
UTF-8 224 164 138 E0 A4 8A 224 166 138 E0 A6 8A 224 174 138 E0 AE 8A 224 176 138 E0 B0 8A 224 172 138 E0 AC 8A 224 178 138 E0 B2 8A 224 180 138 E0 B4 8A 224 170 138 E0 AA 8A 224 168 138 E0 A8 8A
Numeric character reference ऊ ऊ ঊ ঊ ஊ ஊ ఊ ఊ ଊ ଊ ಊ ಊ ഊ ഊ ઊ ઊ ਊ ਊ
ISCII 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9 169 A9


Character information
Preview
Ashoka 
Kushana 
Gupta 
  𑌊
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER UU SIDDHAM LETTER UU GRANTHA LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 69642 U+1100A 71045 U+11585 70410 U+1130A
UTF-8 240 145 128 138 F0 91 80 8A 240 145 150 133 F0 91 96 85 240 145 140 138 F0 91 8C 8A
UTF-16 55300 56330 D804 DC0A 55301 56709 D805 DD85 55300 57098 D804 DF0A
Numeric character reference 𑀊 𑀊 𑖅 𑖅 𑌊 𑌊


Character information
Preview 𑐅 𑰅 𑆈
Unicode name NEWA LETTER UU BHAIKSUKI LETTER UU SHARADA LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 70661 U+11405 72709 U+11C05 70024 U+11188
UTF-8 240 145 144 133 F0 91 90 85 240 145 176 133 F0 91 B0 85 240 145 134 136 F0 91 86 88
UTF-16 55301 56325 D805 DC05 55303 56325 D807 DC05 55300 56712 D804 DD88
Numeric character reference 𑐅 𑐅 𑰅 𑰅 𑆈 𑆈


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER UU TAI THAM LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 4134 U+1026 6736 U+1A50
UTF-8 225 128 166 E1 80 A6 225 169 144 E1 A9 90
Numeric character reference ဦ ဦ ᩐ ᩐ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QUU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 6057 U+17A9
UTF-8 225 158 169 E1 9E A9
Numeric character reference ឩ ឩ


Character information
Preview 𑤅
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER UUYANNA DIVES AKURU LETTER UU SAURASHTRA LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 3468 U+0D8C 71941 U+11905 43143 U+A887
UTF-8 224 182 140 E0 B6 8C 240 145 164 133 F0 91 A4 85 234 162 135 EA A2 87
UTF-16 3468 0D8C 55302 56581 D806 DD05 43143 A887
Numeric character reference ඌ ඌ 𑤅 𑤅 ꢇ ꢇ


Character information
Preview 𑘅 𑦥 𑵥  
Unicode name MODI LETTER UU NANDINAGARI LETTER UU GUNJALA GONDI LETTER UU KAITHI LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 71173 U+11605 72101 U+119A5 73061 U+11D65 69768 U+11088
UTF-8 240 145 152 133 F0 91 98 85 240 145 166 165 F0 91 A6 A5 240 145 181 165 F0 91 B5 A5 240 145 130 136 F0 91 82 88
UTF-16 55301 56837 D805 DE05 55302 56741 D806 DDA5 55303 56677 D807 DD65 55300 56456 D804 DC88
Numeric character reference 𑘅 𑘅 𑦥 𑦥 𑵥 𑵥 𑂈 𑂈


Character information
Preview 𑒆
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 70790 U+11486
UTF-8 240 145 146 134 F0 91 92 86
UTF-16 55301 56454 D805 DC86
Numeric character reference 𑒆 𑒆


Character information
Preview 𑚅 𑠅 𑊵
Unicode name TAKRI LETTER UU DOGRA LETTER UU KHUDAWADI LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 71301 U+11685 71685 U+11805 70325 U+112B5
UTF-8 240 145 154 133 F0 91 9A 85 240 145 160 133 F0 91 A0 85 240 145 138 181 F0 91 8A B5
UTF-16 55301 56965 D805 DE85 55302 56325 D806 DC05 55300 57013 D804 DEB5
Numeric character reference 𑚅 𑚅 𑠅 𑠅 𑊵 𑊵


Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER UKARA TEDUNG
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 6922 U+1B0A
UTF-8 225 172 138 E1 AC 8A
Numeric character reference ᬊ ᬊ


Character information
Preview 𑴅
Unicode name MASARAM GONDI LETTER UU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 72965 U+11D05
UTF-8 240 145 180 133 F0 91 B4 85
UTF-16 55303 56581 D807 DD05
Numeric character reference 𑴅 𑴅



References

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  1. ^ Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. ^ Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. ^ Asiatic Society of Bengal (1838). Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. Calcutta : Printed at the Baptist Mission Press [etc.]