W

W is the twenty-third letter of the modern Latin alphabet.

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W was invented in the 7th century by Anglo-Saxon writers, and was originally a doubled V (which also represented U—hence the name "Double U"). The sound , the voiced labial-velar approximant, was previously represented by the Runic letter Wynn (Ƿ).

Related Topics:
7th century - Anglo-Saxon - V - U - Voiced - Labial-velar approximant - Runic letter - Wynn

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The Latin sound developed into Romance ; therefore V no longer adequately represented Germanic . In German—as in Romance—the phoneme was lost; this is why German W represents rather than . In Dutch, W is a labiodental approximant (with the exception of words with EEUW, which have {{IPA|/eːw/}}), or other diphthongs containing -UW.

Related Topics:
Latin - Romance - Germanic - German - Phoneme - Dutch - Labiodental approximant

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There are only four major European languages that use W in native words: English, German, Polish, and Dutch. In the Swedish and Finnish alphabets, "W" is seen as a variant of "V" and not a separate letter. It is however recognized and maintained in names, like "William". In the alphabets of modern Romance languages, it is not used either, except in foreign names and words recently borrowed (le week-end, il watt, el kiwi). When a spelling for the sound in a native word is needed, a spelling from the native alphabet, such as U or OU, can be used instead. In Hebrew use the same letter, vav to spell W and V which make problems in some cases. For example: many Israelis say Hollyvud (and not Hollywood) or Darvin (and not Darwin). see more (in Hebrew).

Related Topics:
English - German - Polish - Dutch - Swedish - Finnish alphabet - Vav

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The equivalent representation of the sound in the Cyrillic alphabet is Ў, a letter unique to the Belarusian language.

Related Topics:
Cyrillic alphabet - Ў - Belarusian language

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"Double U" is the only English letter name with more than one syllable. This gives the nine-syllable initialism www the irony of being an abbreviation that takes more syllables to say than the unabbreviated form. A few speakers thus shorten the name "double u" into "dub" only, although this is rather rare and nonstandard. In the Texas dialect of American English, the name is often condensed to two syllables rather than three, resulting in George W. Bush's nickname of "Dubya".

Related Topics:
English - Initialism - Www - Texas - American English - George W. Bush - Dubya

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Whiskey represents the letter W in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

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The W on a weather vane stands for west.

Related Topics:
Weather vane - West

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