Belarusian

The letter is called non-syllabic u or short u (Belarusian: у нескладовае, romanized: u nyeskladovaye^[5] or у кароткае, u karotkaje) in Belarusian because although it resembles the vowel у (u), it does not form syllables.^[6] Its equivalent in the Belarusian Latin alphabet is ⟨ŭ⟩,^[7] although it is also sometimes transcribed as ⟨w⟩.^[8]

In native Belarusian words, ⟨ў⟩ is used after vowels and represents a [w],^[9] as in хлеў, pronounced [xlʲew] (chleŭ, ‘shed’) or воўк [vɔwk] (voŭk, ‘wolf’). This is similar to the ⟨w⟩ in English cow /kaʊ/.

The letter ⟨ў⟩ cannot occur before a non-iotated vowel in native words (except compound words such as паўакна, ‘half a window’); when that would be required by grammar, ⟨ў⟩ is replaced by ⟨в⟩ /v/. Compare хлеў ([xlʲew] chleŭ, ‘shed’) with за хлявом ([za xlʲaˈvom] za chlavóm, ‘behind the shed’). Also, when a word starts with an unstressed ⟨у⟩ /u/ and follows a word that ends in a vowel, it forms a diphthong through liaison and it is written with ⟨ў⟩ instead. For example, у хляве ([u xlʲaˈvʲe] u chlavié, ‘in the shed’) but увайшлі яны ў хлеў ([uvajʂˈlʲi jaˈnɨ w xlʲew] uvajšlí janý ŭ chleŭ, ‘they went into the shed’).^[5][10] According to the current official orthographic rules of 2008,^[11] proper names conserve the initial ⟨У⟩ in writing, so the capital letter ⟨Ў⟩ can occur only in all-capitals writing. Previous official orthographic rules (1959) also made exception for loanwords (каля універсітэта, ‘near the university’, now spelled каля ўніверсітэта).^[12] The unofficial 2005 standardization of Taraškievica allows the capital ⟨Ў⟩ in proper names.^[5] In acronyms/initialisms, the word-initial ⟨ў⟩ becomes ⟨У⟩: ВНУ for вышэйшая навучальная ўстанова ‘higher education institution (university, college, institute)’.^[5][11][12] Also, ⟨Ў⟩ becomes ⟨У⟩ in name initials in Taraškievica.^[5]

The letter ⟨ў⟩ is also sometimes used to represent the labial-velar approximant /w/ in foreign loanwords: this usage is allowed by the 2005 standardization of Taraškievica. When it is used thus it can appear before non-iotated vowels, does not require a preceding vowel, and may be capital.^[5]

In poetry, word-initial ⟨у⟩ and ⟨ў⟩ are sometimes used according to the rhythm of a poem. In this case, the capital ⟨Ў⟩ may also occur.^[12]

Uzbek

This letter is the 32nd letter of the Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet as it is a separate letter and not a variant of ⟨у⟩. It corresponds to Oʻ in the current Uzbek alphabet. It is different from the regular O, which is represented by the Cyrillic letter О. Furthermore, it represents /o/, which is pronounced as either [o] or [ɵ], in contrast to the letter O, which represents /ɒ/.^[13]

Karakalpak

The letter is the 26th letter in the Karakalpak alphabet.^[14] It corresponds to the sound /w/ and the Latin letter W.