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Short U (Ў, ў) is a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the short semi-vowel /u^/ in Belarusian.
This unique Cyrillic letter is not used in any other Slavic language except for Belarusian, but it was used in other non-Slavic languages of Soviet Union, namely Azeri (in 1938-1991 when the Soviets made them write in Cyrillic), and in the Tatar language, as well as several others.
Phonetics
It is a voiced labiovelar semivowel, like /w/ in "window". It is called "non-syllable u" (u nieskladovaje) in Belarusian, because by virtue of being a semivowel it can't form syllables.
History
The letter first appeared in Belarusian Lacinka in 1860's or 1870's. The first Belarusian writers who introduced the letter were Jan Czeczot (Czaczot) and Vincent Dunin-Marcinkiewicz. But the first publication that used this distinct Belarusian letter "Ŭ/ŭ" as we know it today, was the first edition of Franciszak Bahuszewicz "Dudka Białaruskaja", published in Krakow in 1891. In earlier Jan Czeczot's Vilnia publications, for example in 1846 edition "Da milych muyczkoú", that letter was already used, but it was printed as a "u" with an accent mark (ú).
In the late 1890's and beginning of the 20th century the letter started appearing in Cyrillic publications in its modern shape Ў.
Monument
In September 2003, as "Days of Belarusian Literacy" were celebrated for the 10th time, the city authorities of the oldest Belarusian city Polatsk made a monument to honor the unique Cyrillic Belarusian letter Ў, which is not used in any other Slavic language. The original idea for the monument came from the Belarusian calligraphy professor Paval Siemchanka who has been studying Cyrillic fonts for many years.
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