W

W 23rd letter of the English alphabet and a letter included the alphabets of in several w European languages. Like f, u, v and y, it was derived from the Semitic letter vaw (a name meaning hook). The Greeks adopted vaw into their alphabet as upsilon. The Romans made two letters out of upsilon – Y and V (see V; Y). The V was first pronounced as a modern English w and later as a modern English v. Norman-French writers of the 11th century created the modern form of the letter by doubling a u or v to represent the Anglo-Saxon letter wynn, which had no counterpart in their alphabet. In modern English w is what phoneticians call a lip-rounded velar semivowel, made like the oo vowel sound in zoo but functioning as a consonant, as in war and swing. Like y, it sometimes has a vowel quality, but usually only when used with another vowel as in new, now or flow. It is silent in such words as answer and wring (words in which it was originally pronounced). In some words introduced by the combination wh, the w is today not sounded (as in who, whom and whore). But in which, what, white and whisk, a voiceless form of w is used. However, in some dialects of English, and all of those in England, this voiceless w is regularly being replaced by ordinary w.