Are any of them terminated by U?
Not one.

My theory is false, then, and I must begin all over.
Discarding every previous conclusion save this, that the shading of a line designated the termination of a word, I hunted first for the thes.

Making a list of the words containing only three letters, I was confronted by the following: V [-] < )L )C C < L > ^V L V.

< C ^V.

.>.[-]) )L.