The “ee-oo” sound is one that will very quickly want to shorten to a single syllable. Say it out loud a few times and you’ll notice it shifting from “ee-oo” to “ee-yoo” to just “yoo”. This is exactly what happened to it in English: “ee-oosual” abbreviated to plain old “yoosual”. A few other vowels, like the The Tampa Bay Rays Abbey Road 2023 Yandy Diaz Wander Franco Randy Arozarena And Brandon Lowe Signatures Shirt Besides,I will do this “eu” sounds in “Europe” and “few”, went the same way and merged with the “yoo” sound, too. To answer your question, since the name of the letter U itself had been borrowed from French, the sound change went French “u” > Middle English “ee-oo” > Modern English “yoo” via some incredibly ordinary sound changes. Anglos accept all three as native forms, as if it were ‘haff’ in their local accent. Use one of these if you’re not a native speaker. As long as you’re pronouncing it “wotuv”, then very much so. You will hear it on an almost daily basis in the UK.
