Ou (letter)
Encyclopedia
Ou is a ligature
of the Greek letters ο
and υ
which was frequently used in Byzantine manuscripts. This ligature is still seen today on icon
artwork in Greek Orthodox churches, and sometimes in graffiti
or other forms of informal or decorative writing.
The ligature is now mostly used in the context of the Latin alphabet
, interpreted as a ligature of Latin o
and u
: for example, in the orthography of the Wyandot language
and of Algonquian languages
of Western Abenaki
to represent /ɔ̃/, and in Algonquin
to represent /ɯ/. Today, in Western Abenaki, "ô" is preferred, and in Algonquin, "w" is preferred.
The ligature, in both majuscule and minuscule forms, is occasionally used to represent minuscule оf "У" in the Romanian Transitional Alphabet
, as the glyph for monograph Uk (ꙋ) is rarely available in font sets.
The same ligature was also used in the context of the Cyrillic alphabet
; see Uk (Cyrillic)
.
, it is encoded for use in Latin as "Latin Capital Script OU" (U+0222 ) and "Latin Small Letter OU" (U+0223) in the Latin Extended-B range, and for use in Cyrillic as Cyrillic letter monograph Uk
(uppercase U+A64A, , lowercase U+A64B), in addition to now deprecated "Cyrillic letter Uk" (uppercase U+0478, , lowercase U+0479), which may be realized with the "о" and "у" either side by side or combined vertically.
Despite the ligature's origin in Greek, there is no separate provision for its encoding in the Greek script, because it was deemed to be a mere ligature on the font level but not a separate underlying character. A proposal for encoding it as "Greek letter ou" was made in 1998, but was rejected.
In older character encoding
s (such as ISO 8859) and locales where Unicode is not available, it is usually represented by the 8 glyph.
Ligature (typography)
In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms", where the specific shape of a letter depends on...
of the Greek letters ο
Omicron
Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70. It is rarely used in mathematics because it is indistinguishable from the Latin letter O and easily confused with the digit 0...
and υ
Upsilon
Upsilon is the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 400. It is derived from the Phoenician waw. The name of the letter is pronounced in Modern Greek, and in English , , or...
which was frequently used in Byzantine manuscripts. This ligature is still seen today on icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
artwork in Greek Orthodox churches, and sometimes in graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
or other forms of informal or decorative writing.
The ligature is now mostly used in the context of the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
, interpreted as a ligature of Latin o
O
O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a...
and u
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
: for example, in the orthography of the Wyandot language
Wyandot language
Wyandot is the Iroquoian language traditionally spoken by the people known variously as Wyandot, Wyandotte, Wendat, or Huron. It was last spoken primarily in Oklahoma and Quebec...
and of Algonquian languages
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
of Western Abenaki
Western Abnaki language
Western Abnaki is one of the World's most endangered languages. In 1991 it was spoken by 20 individuals along the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, who lived mostly at Odanak, the site of the former mission village of St. Francis and about 50 individuals living throughout New...
to represent /ɔ̃/, and in Algonquin
Algonquin language
Algonquin is either a distinct Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alongside French and to some extent English, by the Algonquin First Nations of Quebec and Ontario...
to represent /ɯ/. Today, in Western Abenaki, "ô" is preferred, and in Algonquin, "w" is preferred.
The ligature, in both majuscule and minuscule forms, is occasionally used to represent minuscule оf "У" in the Romanian Transitional Alphabet
Romanian Cyrillic alphabet
The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet was used to write the Romanian language before 1860–1862, when it was officially replaced by a Latin-based Romanian alphabet. Cyrillic remained in occasional use until circa 1920...
, as the glyph for monograph Uk (ꙋ) is rarely available in font sets.
The same ligature was also used in the context of the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
; see Uk (Cyrillic)
Uk (Cyrillic)
Uk is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. It was originally a digraph of the Cyrillic letters O and U or less frequently O and Izhitsa . To save space, it was often written as a vertical ligature , called "monograph Uk"...
.
Computer encoding
In UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, it is encoded for use in Latin as "Latin Capital Script OU" (U+0222 ) and "Latin Small Letter OU" (U+0223) in the Latin Extended-B range, and for use in Cyrillic as Cyrillic letter monograph Uk
Uk (Cyrillic)
Uk is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet. It was originally a digraph of the Cyrillic letters O and U or less frequently O and Izhitsa . To save space, it was often written as a vertical ligature , called "monograph Uk"...
(uppercase U+A64A, , lowercase U+A64B), in addition to now deprecated "Cyrillic letter Uk" (uppercase U+0478, , lowercase U+0479), which may be realized with the "о" and "у" either side by side or combined vertically.
Despite the ligature's origin in Greek, there is no separate provision for its encoding in the Greek script, because it was deemed to be a mere ligature on the font level but not a separate underlying character. A proposal for encoding it as "Greek letter ou" was made in 1998, but was rejected.
In older character encoding
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
s (such as ISO 8859) and locales where Unicode is not available, it is usually represented by the 8 glyph.