Thought for the day

Sep 02, 2008 09:17

Why isn't W pronounced doublev?

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Comments 3

tiger_tyger September 2 2008, 16:51:26 UTC
Because in latin inscriptions U is always written as a V shape

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darqmann September 3 2008, 08:36:02 UTC
Unfortunately that's not a good enough answer, all of the Romantic languages and all of the Germanic ones refer to it as a V or double-V (although each with their own linguistic twist, or not at all.).

some parts of the western of Spain share the pronunciation with us, but only because colloquial Portuguese caught the pronunciation from the English where they say 'dábliu' instead of the more correct 'duplo-vê', which then spread west into Spain.

The long and the short of it is I don't know, but the whole Latin V/U thing isn't the answer. Perhaps it has something to do with our pronunciation of words that contain it.

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temporal_doom September 3 2008, 13:00:54 UTC
was gonna say that, as the french call it double V so it can't be teh latin shtuff

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