In English, Yu is commonlyromanized as⟨yu⟩ or⟨ju⟩. In turn,⟨ю⟩ is used, where available, intranscriptions of English letter⟨u⟩ (inopen syllables), and also of the⟨ew⟩ digraph. The sound[y], like⟨u⟩ in French and⟨ü⟩ in German, may also be approximated by the letter⟨ю⟩.
Sometimes, it is referred to as "Iotated U" because it is a so-callediotated vowel, pronounced in isolation as/ju/, like the pronunciation of⟨u⟩ in "human". After aconsonant, no distinct[j] sound is pronounced, but the consonant issoftened. The exact pronunciation of the vowel sound of⟨ю⟩ in Slavic languages depends also on the succeeding sound. Before a soft consonant, it is[ʉ], theclose central rounded vowel, as in 'rude'. Before a hard consonant or at the end of a word, the result is a back vowel[u], as in "pool".
Apart from the formI-O, in earlySlavonic manuscripts the letter appears also in a mirrored formO-I (Ꙕ, ꙕ).[1] As to it's origin; one possibility is that it was derived from theomicron-iota (οι) diphthong. At the time that theGreek alphabet was adapted to the Slavonic language, it denoted theclose front rounded vowel/y/ in educated Greek speech. The close front rounded vowel does not appear in East Slavic, thus it's approximation would have given way to the letters' modern pronunciation.[citation needed]
There is Another possible origin to the modern form. By the analogy to several 'iotated' lettersѤ,Ꙗ,Ѩ andѬ; the iotated version of the archaic Cyrillic digraph (or letter)Uk⟨І-оѵ⟩/⟨І-оу⟩ could have possibly been derived into the modern letter⟨ю⟩ through the omission of the latter glyph of the trigraphs, similar to how the modernletter У was derived.[citation needed]
