9-THE LETTERS V AND U

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 18, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 32.

9—THE LETTERS V AND U

Will you please tell me through the Question Corner what authority there is for substituting the letter V for the letter U, in counting the numbers expressed in “Vicarius Filii Dei”?

The letters F, U, V, W, and Y are all from the Phœnician “Waw,” or “Vau”; and the Phœnician “Vau” is shaped somewhat like our common Roman Y. The letters V and U were graphic varieties simply—that is, different ways of picturing the same sound—till the sixteenth century. V was used for U because it is more easily made and easily chiseled, on account of its straight lines and angles. They had the same sound in Latin, in Norman-French, and in English down to the Elizabethan period (1588-1603). They were counted as one in all alphabetical arrangements until recently, just the same as I and J are counted one. W in the French language is VV. The old printers’ cases are witnesses to the same thing.

So whenever you see V in Roman literature, or U in a Roman name, you may know they are one and the same thing.