W (wikipedia)

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This article is about the letter of the Latin alphabet. For other uses, see W (wikipedia) (disambiguation).
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**W**, or **w**, is the twenty-third and fourth-to-last letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. It represents a consonant, but in some languages it represents a vowel. Its name in English is *double-u*, plural *double-ues*.

## History

 File:WondersoftheInvisibleWorld-1693.jpg
The classical Latin alphabet, from which the modern European alphabets derived, did not have the "W" character. The "W" sounds were represented by the Latin letter "V" (at the time, not yet distinct from "U").

The sounds Template:IPAslink (spelled Template:Angbr) and Template:IPAslink (spelled Template:Angbr) of Classical Latin developed into the voiced bilabial fricative Template:IPA between vowels in Early Medieval Latin. Therefore, Template:Angbr no longer adequately represented the voiced labial-velar approximant sound Template:IPA of Germanic phonology.

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The Germanic Template:IPA phoneme was, therefore, written as Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr (Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr becoming distinct only by the Early Modern period) by the earliest writers of Old English and Old High German, in the 7th or 8th centuries. Gothic (not Latin-based), by contrast, had simply used a letter based on the Greek Υ for the same sound in the 4th century. The digraph Template:Angbr/Template:Angbr was also used in Medieval Latin to represent Germanic names, including Gothic ones like Wamba.

It is from this Template:Angbr digraph that the modern name "double U" derives. The digraph was commonly used in the spelling of Old High German but only in the earliest texts in Old English, where the Template:IPA sound soon came to be represented by borrowing the rune Template:Angbr, adapted as the Latin letter wynn: Template:Angbr. In early Middle English, following the 11th-century Norman Conquest, Template:Angbr regained popularity; by 1300, it had taken wynn's place in common use.

Scribal realisation of the digraph could look like a pair of Vs whose branches crossed in the middle: both forms (separate and crossed) appear, for instance, in the "running text" (in Latin) of the Bayeux tapestry in proper names such as EDVVARDVS and VVILLELMVS (or the same with crossed Vs). Another realisation (common in roundhand, kurrent and blackletter) takes the form of an Template:Angbr whose rightmost branch curved around, as in a cursive Template:Angbr (viz.

w

.

{\displaystyle \mathfrak{w}. }

) It was used up to the nineteenth century in Britain and continues to be familiar in Germany.

Thus, the shift from the digraph Template:Angbr to the distinct ligature Template:Angbr was gradual and was only apparent in abecedaria, explicit listings of all individual letters. It was probably considered a separate letter by the 14th century in both Middle English and Middle German orthography. However, it remained an outsider, not really considered part of the Latin alphabet proper, as expressed by Valentin Ickelshamer in the 16th century, who complained that:

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In Middle High German (and possibly already in late Old High German), the West Germanic phoneme Template:IPA became realized as Template:IPAblink; this is why, today, the German Template:Angbr represents that sound.

## Pronunciation and use

### English

English uses Template:Angbr to represent Template:IPA. There are also a number of words beginning with a written Template:Angbr that is silent in most dialects before a (pronounced) Template:Angbr, remaining from usage in Old English in which the Template:Angbr was pronounced: *wreak, wrap, wreck, wrench, wroth, wrinkle*, etc. Certain dialects of Scottish English still distinguish this digraph. Template:Angbr represents a vowel sound, Template:IPA, in the word pwn, and in the Welsh loanwords cwm and crwth it retains the Welsh pronunciation, Template:IPA. Template:Angbr is also used in digraphs: Template:Angbr Template:IPA, Template:Angbr Template:IPA, Template:Angbr Template:IPA, wherein it is usually an orthographic allograph of Template:Angbr in final positions. It is the fifteenth most frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 2.56% in words.

### Other languages

In Europe languages with Template:Angbr in native words are in a central-western European zone between Cornwall and Poland: English, German, Low German, Dutch, Frisian, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Walloon, Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Wymysorys, Resian and Scandinavian dialects. German, Polish, Wymysorys and Kashubian use it for the voiced labiodental fricative Template:IPA (with Polish, related Kashubian and Wymysorys using Ł for Template:IPA, except in conservative and some eastern Polish speech, where Ł still represents the dark L sound.), and Dutch uses it for Template:IPA. Unlike its use in other languages, the letter is used in Welsh and Cornish to represent the vowel Template:IPA as well as the related approximant consonant Template:IPA.

The following languages historically used Template:Angbr for Template:IPA in native words, but later replaced it by Template:Angbr: Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Slovak, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Ukrainian Łatynka and Belarusian Łacinka. It is also used in modern systems of Romanization of Belarusian for the letter Template:Angbr, for example in the BGN/PCGN system, in contrast to the letter Template:Angbr, which is used in the Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script.

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In Swedish and Finnish, traces of this old usage may still be found in proper names. In Hungarian remains in some aristocratic surnames, e.g. Wesselényi.

Modern German dialects generally have only Template:IPA or Template:IPA for West Germanic Template:IPA, but Template:IPA or Template:IPA is still heard allophonically for Template:Angbr, especially in the clusters Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr. Some Bavarian dialects preserve a "light" initial Template:IPA, such as in *wuoz* (Standard German *weiß* Template:IPA '[I] know'). The Classical Latin Template:IPA is heard in the Southern German greeting *Servus* ('hello' or 'goodbye').

In Dutch, Template:Angbr became a labiodental approximant Template:IPA (with the exception of words with -Template:Angbr, which have Template:IPA, or other diphthongs containing -Template:Angbr). In many Dutch-speaking areas, such as Flanders and Suriname, the Template:IPA pronunciation (or in some areas a Template:IPA pronunciation, e.g. Belgian-Dutch *water* Template:IPA "water", *wit* Template:IPA "white", *eeuw* Template:IPA "century", etc.) is used at all times.

In Finnish, Template:Angbr is sometimes seen as a variant of Template:Angbr and not a separate letter, but it is a part of official alphabet. It is, however, recognized and maintained in the spelling of some old names, reflecting an earlier German spelling standard, and in some modern loan words. In all cases, it is pronounced Template:IPA. The first edition of the *Kalevala* had its title spelled *Kalewala*.

In Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Template:Angbr is named double-v and not double-u. In these languages, the letter only exists in old names, loanwords and foreign words. (Foreign words are distinguished from loanwords by having a significantly lower level of integration in the language.) It is usually pronounced Template:IPA, but in some words of English origin it may be pronounced Template:IPA. The letter was officially introduced in the Danish and Swedish alphabets as late as 1980 and 2006, respectively, despite having been in use for much longer. It had been recognized since the conception of modern Norwegian, with the earliest official orthography rules of 1907. Template:Angbr was earlier seen as a variant of Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr as a letter (double-v) is still commonly replaced by Template:Angbr in speech (e.g. WC being pronounced as VC, www as VVV, WHO as VHO, etc.) The two letters were sorted as equals before Template:Angbr was officially recognized, and that practice is still recommended when sorting names in Sweden. In modern slang, some native speakers may pronounce Template:Angbr more closely to the origin of the loanword than the official Template:IPA pronunciation.

Multiple dialects of Swedish and Danish use the sound however. In Denmark notably in Jutland, where the northern half use it extensively in traditional dialect, and multiple places in Sweden. It is used in southern Swedish, for example in Halland where the words "wesp" (wisp) and "wann" (water) are traditionally used. In northern and western Sweden there are also dialects with Template:IPA. Elfdalian is a good example, which is one of many dialects where the [[Old Norse orthography|Old Norse difference between v (Template:IPA) and f (Template:IPA or Template:IPA)]] is preserved. Thus "warg" from Old Norse "vargr", but "åvå" from Old Norse "hafa".

In the alphabets of most modern Romance languages, Template:Angbr is used mostly in foreign names and words recently borrowed (Italian *il watt*, Spanish *el kiwi*). In Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, Template:IPA is a non-syllabic variant of Template:IPA, spelled Template:Angbr. In Italian, while the letter Template:Angbr is not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet, the character is often used in place of *Viva* (hooray for...), generally in the form in which the branches of the Vs cross in the middle, at least in handwriting (in fact it could be considered a monogram). The same symbol written upside down indicates *abbasso* (down with...). In French, Template:Angbr is also used mostly in foreign names and words recently borrowed such as *wagon* or *week(-)end*, but in the first case it is pronounced Template:IPA (because of its German origin; except in Belgium, where it is pronounced [w]) and in the second Template:IPA. In most northern French dialects the former Template:Angbr turned finally to Template:Angbr, but still exists as a remnant in the place-names of Romance Flanders, Picardie, Artois, Champagne, Romance Lorraine and sometimes elsewhere (Normandy, Île-de-France), and in the surnames from the same regions. Walloon as it sounds conserves the Template:Angbr pronounced Template:IPA. The digraph Template:Angbr is used to render Template:Angbr in rare French words such as *ouest* "west" and to spell Arabic names transliterated *-wi* in English, but *-oui* in French (compare Arabic surname Badawi / Badaoui). In all these languages, as in Scandinavian languages mentioned above, the letter is named "double v" (French Template:IPA, Spanish Template:IPA) though in Belgium the name Template:IPA is also used.

In Indonesian, the letter "w" is called *wé*. The letter names in Indonesian are always the same with the sounds they produce, especially the consonants.

The Japanese language uses "W", pronounced *daburu*, as an ideogram meaning "double". It is also used in internet slang to indicate laughter (like LOL), derived from the word *warau* (笑う, meaning "to laugh").

In Italian, while the letter Template:Angbr is not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet, the character is often used in place of *Viva* (hooray for...), generally in the form in which the branches of the Vs cross in the middle, at least in handwriting (in fact it could be considered a monogram). The same symbol written upside down indicates *abbasso* (down with...)

In the Kokborok language, Template:Angbr represents the open-mid back rounded vowel Template:IPA.

In Turkey the use of the w was banned between 1928 and 2013 which was a problem for the Kurdish population in Turkey as the w was a letter of the Kurdish alphabet. The use of the letter w in the word Newroz, the Kurdish new year was forbidden and names which included the letter were not able to be used. In 2008, a court in Gaziantep reasoned the use of the letter w would incite civil unrest. Nevertheless, the w was used in water closets throughout Turkey.

In Vietnamese, Template:Angbr is called *Template:Lang*, from the French *Template:Lang*. It is not included in the standard Vietnamese alphabet, but it is often used as a substitute for *qu-* in literary dialect and very informal writing. It's also commonly used for abbreviating *Ư* in formal documents, for example *Trung Ương* is abbreviated as TW even in official documents and document ID number

"W" is the 24th letter in the Modern Filipino Alphabet and has its English name. However, in the old Filipino alphabet, Abakada, it was the 19th letter and had the name "wah".Template:Fix

In Washo, lower-case Template:Angbr represents a typical Template:IPA sound, while upper-case Template:Angbr represents a voiceless w sound, like the difference between English *weather* and *whether* for those who maintain the distinction.

### Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, Template:Angbr IPA is used for the voiced labial-velar approximant.

## Other uses

 File:William Caslon IV Five Lines Pica No. 2 Italic (cropped).jpg
W is the symbol for the chemical element tungsten, after its German (and alternative English) name, Template:Lang. It is also the SI symbol for the watt, the standard unit of power. It is also often used as a variable in mathematics, especially to represent a complex number or a vector.

## Name

Double-u, whose name reflects stages in the letter's evolution when it was considered two of the same letter, a double U, is the only modern English letter whose name has more than one syllable. It is also the only English letter whose name is not pronounced with any of the sounds that the letter typically makes in words, with the exception of H for some speakers.

Some speakers shorten the name "double u" into "dub-u" or just "dub"; for example, University of Wisconsin, University of Washington, University of Wyoming, University of Waterloo, University of the Western Cape and University of Western Australia are all known colloquially as "U Dub", and the automobile company Volkswagen, abbreviated "VW", is sometimes pronounced "V-Dub". The fact that many website URLs require a "www." prefix has been influential in promoting these shortened pronunciations.Template:Citation needed

In other Germanic languages, including German (but not Dutch, in which it is pronounced wé), its name is similar to that of English V. In many languages, its name literally means "double v": Portuguese *duplo vê*, Spanish *doble ve* (though it can be spelled *uve doble*), French *double vé*, Icelandic *tvöfalt vaff*, Czech *dvojité vé*, Estonian *kaksisvee*, Finnish *kaksois-vee*, etc.

Former U.S. president George W. Bush was given the nickname "Dubya" after the colloquial pronunciation of his middle initial in Texas, where he spent much of his childhood.

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## Related characters

### Ancestors, descendants and siblings

* 𐤅: Semitic letter Waw, from which the following symbols originally derive
* U : Latin letter U
* V : Latin letter V
* Ⱳ ⱳ : W with hook
* Ꝡ ꝡ : Latin letter VY
* Ꟃ ꟃ : Anglicana W, used in medieval English and Cornish
* IPA-specific symbols related to W: Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
* Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to W: Template:Unichar and Template:Unichar
* ʷ : Modifier letter small w is used in Indo-European studies
* ꭩ : Modifier letter small turned w is used in linguistic transcriptions of Scots
* W with diacritics: Ẃ ẃ Ẁ ẁ Ŵ ŵ Ẅ ẅ Ẇ ẇ Ẉ ẉ ẘ
* װ (double vav): the Yiddish and Hebrew equivalent of W
* Arabic و, has the same origin despite bearing little resemblance to W

### Ligatures and abbreviations

* ₩ : Won sign, capital letter W with double stroke

## Computing codes

Template:Charmap

1 Template:Midsize

## See also

* Digamma (Ϝ), the archaic Greek letter for /w/
* Voiced labio-velar approximant
* Wh (digraph)
* ***W*** stands for Work in physics
* **W** is the symbol for "watt" in the International System of Units (SI)

## References

**Informational notes**
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**Citations**
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## External links

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Template:Wiktionary

Template:Latin alphabet

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1. ↑ "W", *Oxford English Dictionary,* 2nd edition (1989); 'W", *Oxford English Dictionary,* 2nd edition (1989); *Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged* (1993) Merriam Webster
2. ↑ Brown & Kiddle (1870) *The institutes of grammar,* p. 19.
*Double-ues* is the plural of the name of the letter; the plural of the letter itself is written W's, *W*s, w's, or *w*s.
3. ↑ Why is 'w' pronounced 'double u' rather than 'double v'? : Oxford Dictionaries Online. Oxforddictionaries.com.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Flawed Typefaces.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 A History: English round hand and 'The Universal Penman'. Adobe Systems.
6. ↑ Belarusian romanization (June 2019) (publishing.service.gov.uk).
7. ↑ W, w - Gyldendal - Den Store Danske.
8. ↑ Ordlista., page 1098
9. ↑ Template:Cite book
10. ↑ Veckans språkråd 2006 (sv) (July 5, 2007).
11. ↑ Template:Cite book
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Template:Cite book
13. ↑ Let the pretending to be injured begin. No-sword.jp (June 10, 2006).
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Ban on Kurdish letters to be lifted with democracy package - Turkey News (en) (September 27, 2013).
15. ↑ Template:Cite news
16. ↑ Template:Cite news
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Refugee Review Tribunal Australia.
18. ↑ Template:Cite news
19. ↑ Template:Cite news
20. ↑ Template:Cite journal
21. ↑ Từ viết tắt: Trung ương.
22. ↑ VIỆT NAM, ĐẢNG CỘNG SẢN. Hệ thống văn bản (vi-VN).
23. ↑ "W, w, pronounced: wah". *English, Leo James Tagalog-English Dictionary*. 1990., page 1556.
24. ↑ Template:Cite book
25. ↑ Template:Cite book
26. ↑ Volkswagen. VW Unpimp – Drop it like its hot.
27. ↑ Real Academia Española elimina la Ch y ll del alfabeto. Taringa! (November 5, 2010).
28. ↑ Everson, Michael (July 26, 2017). L2/17-238: Proposal to add LATIN LETTER ANGLICANA W to the UCS.
29. ↑ L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS (March 20, 2002).
30. ↑ L2/04-191: Proposal to encode six Indo-Europeanist phonetic characters in the UCS (June 7, 2004).
31. ↑ Everson, Michael (May 5, 2019). L2/19-075R: Proposal to add six phonetic characters for Scots to the UCS.