Coptic Small Letter Ua

It marks a vowel in Coptic words, usually transliterated u. The Coptic alphabet adapted Greek letters to write Egyptian and added signs from Demotic, an older Egyptian script, for sounds Greek could not represent. Those writing experiments began in the late fourth century BCE; literary Coptic took shape around the third century CE.

Coptic pronunciation varies across dialects and reading traditions, so the letter has no single sound for every reader. Coptic writing served biblical translation and private or monastic letters; by the sixth century CE, it also carried literature, church worship, and legal communication. Scholars also call ⲩ Coptic upsilon.