Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/572

  The twenty-first letter of the English alphabet. It is a modification made in manuscript writing of the Latin inscriptional V, and is itself found on the inscriptions of Rome as early as the latter part of the 2nd century The symbols U, V, Y are all of the same origin, but what the origin is has been much disputed. In the Phoenician alphabet T is the last symbol, but there can be little doubt that when the Greeks introduced symbols for vowels, which had not been indicated in the alphabet they had borrowed, they took the sixth symbol of the Phoenician alphabet (see ) in its ordinary formand placed it at the end of the alphabet with the value of a vowel. This vowel was apparently u (English oo in moon), though Ionic and Attic Greek at a very early period changed it to the sound of the French u. In other dialects the earlier value long persisted, and in modern Tzakonian, the representative of the ancient Laconian, it still survives. In some places, e.g. Boeotia, the sound seems to have changed, in connexion with dental consonants, in the same way as the English sound, in certain cases i&#x032f; (y) being inserted in front of it. This seems to be the only feasible explanation of such spellings as, , which appear after the Boeotians adopted the Ionic alphabet. A similar change must have existed in very early Attic and Ionic to account for the change of t before into s in, “thou” for ; some authorities think it was universal in the earliest Greek. Greek nowhere shows the symbol in the bowl shape that it has in the Semitic alphabet. From the 7th century both Y and V are found, sometimes both in the same area. Another form somewhat later has the upper strokes curved outwards, while the angle is much less deep than in the other forms. It is noticeable that the symbol for u in the syllabary which was used to write Greek in Cyprus has this form amongst others. The name of the sixth symbol in the Phoenician alphabet was Wāw (Vau), but though U has taken its form, in Greek its name was ῦ (i.e. English oo, as in moon, except in Attic and Ionic, where it was like the French u in lune), not upsilon, as is frequently stated. In Sweet's terminology u (oo), as pronounced in English “put” or “too,” is a high back wide round, while the sound in the French sou or the Scotch pronunciation of “ book ” is a high back narrow round. The high front corresponding sound is found in the French lune. With this the German “modified u” (ü) is often equated, but it is not really identical, being a mid front narrow round vowel. The pitch of the vowel u is among the lowest of the vowel sounds; the rounding and protrusion of the lips make the breath passage longer than it is for other vowels, and so its production may be compared to that of a sound made upon a flute when all the finger-holes are covered. In modern English ū preceded by i&#x032f; (y) arises from three different sounds in middle English: (a) the long French u (ü) brought in with borrowed words from French (duke), (b) ēu (Early English ēow) as in “new,” (c) a more open sound ēu (Early English ēaw) as in “dew” (Sweet, New English Grammar, § 806). The y-sound was dropped after r, ch and dzh, as in “true,” “choose,” “juice” (ibid., § 857). In the literary dialect also it generally disappears after l, as in “lurid,” “lute.” In some provincial and American pronunciations it is dropped everywhere except initially, so that “Tuesday” is pronounced Toosday, “new” noo.

UAKARI (Ouakari), the native name of certain tropical American monkeys, distinguished from all other New World monkeys by their short tails. The three known species constitute the genus Uacaria (or Cothurnus) of zoologists, and are confined to the forests of Amazonia and the neighbourhood. One of them (U. calva) is remarkable for its long, silky, pale chestnut fur and brilliant scarlet face, which is naked (see ).

UBANGI, a river of Equatorial Africa, the chief northern affluent of the (q.v.). The Ubangi (otherwise Mubangi or Mobangi) enters the Congo by various mouths between 0° 22′ and 0° 37′ S. and 17° 40′ and 17° 50′ E. The main channel, fully 1 m. wide, joins the Congo in 0° 31′ S. The Ubangi is formed by the junction of the Mbomu and the Welle, both of which rise on the north-eastern rim of the Congo basin.

The Welle was discovered from the north by G. A. Schweinfurth in 1870; i.e. seven years before the discovery of the course of the Congo by H. M. Stanley. By Schweinfurth the Welle was believed to belong to the Chad system, but W. Junker, who (1882–1883) followed the river to near its confluence with the Mbomu, made it clear that the Welle belonged to the Congo system. In 1885 the Rev. George Grenfell, of the Baptist Missionary Society (who had discovered the mouth of the river in 1884), ascended the Ubangi as far as the Zongo rapids. He was followed in 1886–1889 by the Belgian A. van Gèle, who in the last-named year finally established the identity of the Ubangi with Schweinfurth’s Welle. The Mbomu was discovered from the north in 1877 by a Greek, Dr P. Potagos, and its upper course was followed for some distance by Junker. The Ubangi and the Mbomu form the frontier between Belgian Congo and French Congo, the northern banks of both streams belonging to France. See, besides the works of Schweinfurth, Junker and other travellers, A. J. Wauters, Les Bassins de l' Ubangi (inférieur) get de la Sanga, with map (Brussels, 1902); Dr Cureau's map (1: 1,000,000) of the upper Ubangi in La Géographie (October 1900); the and works there cited.

ÚBEDA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Iaen; 2000 ft. above sea-level, in the Loma de Ubeda, a range on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. Pop. (1900), 19,913. The surrounding country produces wheat, wine, olives and fruit. Ubeda has a station 6 m. south on the Madrid-Almeria railway. Portions of the old walls, with towers and gates, still remain, and there are three late Gothic churches, the oldest of which, San Salvador, dates from 1540 to 1556, and contains some interesting paintings. An important fair is held from the 29th of September to the 5th of October. Oil, soap, esparto and linen fabrics are manufactured. Ubeda was an important town under Moorish rule.