History of U

The ancient Egyptains used the letter u as a symbol of a supporting pole in about 3000 B.C. The Semites adopted the symbol and named it waw, which is their word for hook. The Phoenicians made a letter like a hook about 1000 B.C. When the Greeks did their alphabet, they added the letter upsilon to their alphabet at about 600 B.C, and about 114 A.D. The Romans used the letter V for both the letters u and v sounds. Medieval scholars began writing u as a vowel and v as a consonant.