W

Proto-semiticW-01

PhoenicianW-01

Phoenician waw.svg

Early Aramaic character - vav

Latin letter W

Proto-semiticW-01.png

W

W is the 23rd letter of the modern Latin alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is a consonant in the English language and is used in various other languages as well. The letter W is unique in that it is one of the few letters in the English alphabet that has a name that does not correspond to its phonetic sound.

History

The letter W originated from the digraph "VV" used in the Old English alphabet. It was later replaced by the single character "W" in the Middle Ages. The letter W was introduced to the Latin alphabet by the Normans and has since become a standard letter in the English alphabet.

Usage in English

In English, W is used to represent a variety of sounds, most commonly the voiced labio-velar approximant /w/. It appears in many common words such as "water," "window," and "world." The letter W is also used in various digraphs such as "wh" and "wr."

Phonetic Representation

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the letter W is represented by the symbol [w]. It is classified as a voiced labio-velar approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the velum and the lips.

Variants

The letter W has several variants in different languages and scripts:

• In German, W is pronounced as /v/.
• In Welsh, W can function as a vowel, representing the sounds /u/ and /ʊ/.
• In Polish, W is pronounced as /v/.

Computing Codes

In Unicode, the capital W is encoded at U+0057 and the lowercase w is encoded at U+0077. In ASCII, the capital W is represented by the decimal code 87 and the lowercase w by the decimal code 119.

Related Letters and Characters

• V: The letter V is closely related to W, as W originated from a double V.
• U: The letter U is also related, as it shares a similar shape and historical development with V and W.

See Also

• Latin alphabet
• Old English alphabet
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Digraph (orthography)