The story of U is a more complicated one than may first appear…she has two ‘children’ in the form of V and W which were gradually born during the European Middle Ages. Before this she was compelled to do some of the leg work by herself; for example, in Ancient Rome U could represent either the familiar ‘u’ sound, or, when placed before a vowel, the sound ‘w’….you can still see this sound in the words ‘quiet’, ‘quest’ and ‘require’.

Before her children came, U looked very different…in fact she looked just like her future offspring V. This was back in Ancient Rome where Marcus Aurelius could expect his written name to look like this: MARCVS AVRELIVS.

What do you think of when you see the letters F and U together? …Now, now! They have quite a shameful, vulgar association; however they share an honorable past! They were born out of the same letter from the ancient Phoenician alphabet when the Greeks adopted it; from the same letter the Greeks distinguished a consonant and a vowel for themselves and these eventually grew into our F and U.

U has a relatively uncomplicated sound. The two sounds that it makes (one long and one short) are heard in this short phrase; ‘mud rules’. With the long U, the tongue is in a high position towards the back of the mouth and for the short U the tongue is low and forward. The pronunciation of O can sometimes encroach onto U’s territory: ‘loot’ and ‘lute’ or ‘son’ and ‘sun’.

A baby might adopt the sound of U as it is attempting to talk; ‘oooo!’ and may sometimes attach an easy consonant to the front of it… ‘googoo!’

What does the letter U evoke in your mind? A U-turn? A U-frame? ….U2?

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