U 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 A.D. 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 F) in its ordinary
form
and 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 i̯ (y) being inserted in front of it. This seems
to be the only feasible explanation of such spellings as τιούχα
(τύχη), πολιούξενος (πολύξενος), 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 υ into s in σύ, “thou” for τύ; 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 B.C. both Y and V are found, sometimes
both in the same area. Another form somewhat later has the
upper strokes curved outwards Υ, 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 i̯
(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. (P. Gi.)
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 Primates).
UBANGI, a river of Equatorial Africa, the chief northern
affluent of the Congo (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 water-parting between the Bahr-el-Ghazal affluents (Nile system) and the Mbomu head streams is not very clearly marked, but high hills running parallel with the Nile between Albert Nyanza and Dufile sharply separate the valley of the Welle and other west flowing streams from that of the Mountain Nile. The chief of the head streams of the Welle (known in its upper course as the Kibali) rises on the western slope of a hill about 40 m. west of Wadelai. It is joined by several small streams, the main river flowing in a W.N.W. direction. After a course of over 700 m. (during which it receives one large southern tributary—the Bomokandi—and other considerable affluents) the Welle joins the Mbomu in 4° 10′ N. 22° 37′ E. The Mbomu, which has two large northern tributaries, the Shinko and the Bale, rises in 4° 50′ N. 27° 12′ E. For some distance it runs parallel to and about 100 m. north of the lower course of the Welle. About 23° 12′ E. it turns sharply south until its junction with the NVelle. In its lower course the Mbomu is interrupted by many falls and rapids. A short distance below the junction of the Mbomu and Welle the Kotto, coming from beyond 8° N., on the borders of Darfur, and forming the most northerly extension of the Congo basin, enters the united stream, now known as the Ubangi, on the right bank. The remaining tributaries, mostly on the right bank, are smaller, but the Kemo, which joins the Ubangi near its most northern point (5° 8′ N.), is of some importance as offering water communication to within a short distance of the Shari basin. Below the Kemo confluence the Ubangi, which has hitherto continued to flow W.N.W., makes a great bend south and runs into the Congo after a southerly course of 400 m. Shortly after receiving the Kemo the river forces its way through a line of hills whose tops rise 600 to 800 ft. above the banks of the stream. Here are the Zongo or Grenfell rapids, which are a barrier to navigation save for small boats at flood season. Above the Zongo rapids the river is navigable up to the confluence of the Welle and Mbomu, and the Welle is navigable at high flood up to the Bomokandi confluence in 26° 8′, though the stream is much interrupted by rapids.
From the Mbomu-Welle confluence to the junction of the Ubangi with the Congo the river has a course of fully 700 m., while the Ubangi-Welle combined exceeds 1400 m. From its mouth to Zongo rapids, a distance of 350 m., the stream, is navigable by Steamers drawing 3 ft. of water. In general the Ubangi flows through a fertile and forested region.
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 Congo 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.
