Why does 'w' sound like 'weh' but not 'double you' in words?

Answer 1

It is for the same reason that the word page is pronounced page, not peeyayjeeyee

THE NAME OF THE LETTER is 'double you' because it is a relatively new letter and originally it was written/printed as uu, or as vv. So it was, literally, a double-you! (At the time there was some debate as to whether it should be a double-veh, or a double-you!)

The pronunciation of 'w' is not the same in all languages. So, where English pronunciation differed from its European counterpart, and to standardize matters, printers invented the letter 'w.' IN ENGLISH, 'w' is often pronounced with a 'wuh' sound (or something similar, depending on the vowel sound that follows it!), which is quite different from the usual 'u' sound e.g. compare wonderwith under.

However! ... In some English words the pronunciations of 'w' and 'u' are the same!*

e.g.

* faun/fawn, lawn/laundry

* few/feu/feud, new/newt/neutral * fowl/foul [* may differ in some accents]

Other words often have extra letters to indicate how the w or the u should be pronounced, which, in some cases, also results in identical vowel sounds for the w/u. e.g: claws/clause, mew/mute, suite/sweet

Even in some 'artificial' words the u and w sounds are the same. e.g. quick/kwik.

MOST ENGLISH WORDS have their roots elsewhere, so it would be helpful to look at the 'foreign' element in some familiar words where we use w, either as a letter in spelling, or as an English way of indicating the pronunciation of a foreign word.

Consider the following:

1. North, South, East and Ouest. (Say each word out loud, as written! -Interesting?)

The spelling of 'West' in different languages

Danish: vest

Italian: ovest

French: ouest

English: west!

2. The French word for Yes is Oui, pronounced as we, wee, or wii in English spelling. So the French 'ou' becomes an English 'w' in this instance!

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So, in view if the fact that a 'w' can represent the u, uu, ou or oo sounds, i.e. it makes a speech sound by vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction, maybe it is really a vowel, and not a consonant!

(However, this new letter 'w' has been arbitrarily listed as a consonant for a long time, so let's stick with that, otherwise it can get very confusing!) SUMMARY:

# In writing, a lower-case 'w' looks like two u's joined together, so the 'w' is called a double-you because of its shape.

# The pronunciation of English letters often differs in different words. Sometimes a 'w' and a 'u' are pronounced the same way. Sometimes they are not.

# Native speakers of English generally know how each word should be pronounced, including the subtleties between different 'w' sounds. Those whose first language in not English have a greater challenge!

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