U

is the twenty-first letter and the fifth vowel in the English alphabet. Its true primary sound, in Anglo-Saxon, was the sound which it still retains in most of the languages of Europe—that of oo in cool, tool, answering to the French ou in tour. This sound was changed to that heard in the words use, tube, &c., probably under the Norman kings, by the attempt made to introduce the Norman-French language into common use. Besides these two sounds, u has also two other sounds, as exemplified in the words but, bull. See Principles of Pronunciation, §§ 29–34, and §§ 52, 53. The letter U is a modification of the Greek letter Υ. It has a close affinity to the consonant v, and hence these two letters were formerly confounded in writing and printing, the discrimination between them being of a comparatively recent date.