Ʊ

{{Short description|Letter of the Latin alphabet}}

{{confused|text=the Greek letter Upsilon or ℧, the symbol for the mho (an alternative name for the siemens, a unit of electric conductance)}}

{{For|Japanese hiragana|ひ}}

{{for multi| the sound with this symbol in the IPA|

Near-close near-back rounded vowel}}

{{Refimprove|date=September 2015}}

{{use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}{{Infobox grapheme

|name=Ʊ

|letter=Ʊ ʊ

|variations=

|image=File:Latin letter Upsilon.svg

|imageclass=skin-invert-image

|imagesize=200px

|imagealt=Upper and lower case Latin upsilon

|script=Latin script

|type=Alphabet

|typedesc=ic and Logographic

|language=

|phonemes={{grid list|[{{IPAlink|ʊ}}] [{{IPAlink|u̘}}]}}

|unicode=U+01B1, U+028A

|alphanumber=

|number=

| fam1 = G43T3

| fam2 = Image:Proto-semiticW-01.svg

| fam3 = File:PhoenicianW-01.svg

| fam4 = Image:Phoenician waw.svg

| fam5 = Image:Early Aramaic character - vav.png

| fam6 = {{script|Grek|Υ υ}}

|usageperiod=

|children=

|sisters=

|equivalents=

|associates=

|direction=Left-to-Right

}}File:Latin Upsilon in ARA - uppercase and lowercase.svg, clearly based on a serifed shape of the Latin capital U.]]The letter Ʊ (minuscule: ʊ), called horseshoe or sometimes bucket, inverted omega or Latin upsilon, is a letter of the International Phonetic Alphabet used to transcribe a near-close near-back rounded vowel. Graphically, the lower case is a turned small-capital Greek letter omega ({{lang|el|Ω}}) in many typefaces (e.g. Arial, Calibri, Candara, Liberation, Lucida, Noto, Times New Roman), and historically it derives from a small-capital Latin U (ᴜ), with the serifs exaggerated to make them more visible.Small-cap {{angbr IPA|ᴜ}} was rounded to modern {{angbr IPA|ʊ}} in 1904, but continued with its original shape in Americanist usage.{{cite journal

|author=Association phonétique internationale

|year=1904

|title=Aim and Principles of the International Phonetic Association

|journal=Le Maître Phonétique

|volume=19

|issue=11

|at=Supplement

|jstor=44703664

}} However, Geoffrey Pullum interpreted it as an IPA variant of the Greek letter upsilon (υ) and called it Latin upsilon, the name that would be adopted by Unicode, though in IPA an actual Greek upsilon is also used for the voiced labiodental approximant; Pullum called this letter script V{{cite book |last1=Pullum|first1=Geoffrey K.|author-link1=Geoffrey K. Pullum |last2=Ladusaw|first2=William A.|date=1996|title=Phonetic Symbol Guide|edition=Second|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=0-226-68536-5|page=185|title-link=Phonetic Symbol Guide}} and Unicode calls it V with hook.

Horseshoe is used in the African reference alphabet, and national alphabets such as those of Anii{{Cite book|title=Alphabet des langues nationales béninoises|publisher=Ministère de l’Alphabétisation et de la Promotion des langues nationales, Centre national de linguistique appliquée, Benin|lang=fr|year=2008|ol = 25931062M}} and Tem. It most often has the value of /u/ with retracted tongue root.