V

:This article is about the alphabetic letter. For the TV series, see V (TV series).

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V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet.

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Like F and the Greek letter Upsilon (also spelled Ypsilon), V evolved from the Phoenician letter Waw. In Etruscan it was simplified to V and had the sound value /u/, but since F came to represent /f/ in Latin rather than /w/, the Romans used V for both /w/ and /u/, as in EQVVS.

Related Topics:
F - Greek - Upsilon - Phoenician - Waw - Etruscan - Latin

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In some Roman handwriting styles, it was written as a modern uppercase V, while in others like uncial it resembled modern lowercase u.

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With the Mediaeval introduction of the distinction between both cases, the pair was written as V/u, as in Vniuersitas.

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In Romance languages, V came to represent /v/ which developed from /w/;

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Around the Renaissance, U and V were felt as sounds different enough to warrant their own letters, and a lowercase v and an uppercase U were developed.

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A similar evolution happened with I/J.

Related Topics:
I - J

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German W (or double u, from VV) originally was pronounced as the English letter – but has been pronounced /v/ since Middle High German times. At the same time, V was pronounced in German as in English, but the German 'Vau' soon stood for /f/ again in all positions except between vowels. (The same is probably now happening in some dialects of Dutch.) However, it is still pronounced as /v/ in German words of foreign origin.

Related Topics:
W - Dutch

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In the International Phonetic Alphabet, 'v' represents the voiced labiodental fricative. See IPA chart for English for pronunciation key.

Related Topics:
International Phonetic Alphabet - Voiced labiodental fricative - IPA chart for English

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Victor represents the letter V in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

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