W

English uses ⟨w⟩ to represent /w/. There are also a number of words beginning with a written ⟨w⟩ that is silent in most dialects before a (pronounced) ⟨r⟩, remaining from usage in Old English in which the ⟨w⟩ was pronounced: wreak, wrap, wreck, wrench, wroth, wrinkle, etc. Certain dialects of Scottish English still distinguish this digraph. ⟨w⟩ represents a vowel sound, /oʊ/, in the word pwn, and in the Welsh loanwords cwm and crwth it retains the Welsh pronunciation, /ʊ/. ⟨W⟩ is also used in digraphs: ⟨aw⟩ /ɔː/, ⟨ew⟩ /(j)uː/, ⟨ow⟩ /aʊ, oʊ/, wherein it is usually an orthographic allograph of ⟨u⟩ in final positions. It is the fifteenth most frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 2.56% in words.

In Europe languages with ⟨w⟩ 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 /v/ (with Polish, related Kashubian and Wymysorys using Ł for /w/, except in conservative and some eastern Polish speech, where Ł still represents the dark L sound.), and Dutch uses it for /ʋ/. Unlike its use in other languages, the letter is used in Welsh and Cornish to represent the vowel /u/ as well as the related approximant consonant /w/.

The following languages historically used ⟨w⟩ for /v/ in native words, but later replaced it by ⟨v⟩: 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 ⟨ў⟩, for example in the BGN/PCGN[7] system, in contrast to the letter ⟨ŭ⟩, which is used in the Instruction on transliteration of Belarusian geographical names with letters of Latin script.

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 [v] or [ʋ] for West Germanic /w/, but [w] or [β̞] is still heard allophonically for ⟨w⟩, especially in the clusters ⟨schw⟩, ⟨zw⟩, and ⟨qu⟩. Some Bavarian dialects preserve a "light" initial [w], such as in wuoz (Standard German weiß [vaɪs] '[I] know'). The Classical Latin [β] is heard in the Southern German greeting Servus ('hello' or 'goodbye').

In Dutch, ⟨w⟩ became a labiodental approximant /ʋ/ (with the exception of words with -⟨eeuw⟩, which have /eːβ/, or other diphthongs containing -⟨uw⟩). In many Dutch-speaking areas, such as Flanders and Suriname, the /β/ pronunciation is used at all times.

In Finnish, ⟨w⟩ is sometimes seen as a variant of ⟨v⟩ 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 /ʋ/.

In Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, ⟨w⟩ 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 /v/, but in some words of English origin it may be pronounced /w/.[8][9] 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.[10] ⟨W⟩ was earlier seen as a variant of ⟨v⟩, and ⟨w⟩ as a letter (double-v) is still commonly replaced by ⟨v⟩ in speech (e.g. WC being pronounced as VC, www as VVV, WHO as VHO, etc.) The two letters were sorted as equals before ⟨w⟩ was officially recognized, and that practice is still recommended when sorting names in Sweden.[11] In modern slang, some native speakers may pronounce ⟨w⟩ more closely to the origin of the loanword than the official /v/ 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.[12] In northern and western Sweden there are also dialects with /w/. Elfdalian is a good example, which is one of many dialects where the Old Norse difference between v (/w/) and f (/v/ or /f/) is preserved. Thus "warg" from Old Norse "vargr", but "åvå" from Old Norse "hafa".

In the alphabets of most modern Romance languages (excepting far northern French and Walloon), ⟨w⟩ is used mostly in foreign names and words recently borrowed (le week-end, il watt, el kiwi). The digraph ⟨ou⟩ is used for /w/ in native French words; ⟨oi⟩ is /wa/ or /wɑ/. In Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, [w] is a non-syllabic variant of /u/, spelled ⟨u⟩.

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".[13] 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 ⟨w⟩ 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).[14] The same symbol written upside down indicates abbasso (down with...)

In the Kokborok language, ⟨w⟩ represents the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/.

In Turkey the use of the w was banned between 1928 and 2013[15][16] which was a problem for the Kurdish population in Turkey as the w was a letter of the Kurdish alphabet.[17] The use of the letter w in the word Newroz, the Kurdish new year was forbidden[18] and names which included the letter were not able to be used.[15][19] In 2008, a court in Gaziantep reasoned the use of the letter w would incite civil unrest.[18] Nevertheless, the w was used in water closets throughout Turkey.[18]

In Vietnamese, ⟨w⟩ is called vê đúp, from the French double vé. 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.[20][21] It's also commonly used for abbreviating Ư in formal documents, for example Trung Ương is abbreviated as TW[22] even in official documents and document ID number[23]

"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".[24]

In Washo, lower-case ⟨w⟩ represents a typical /w/ sound, while upper-case ⟨W⟩ represents a voiceless w sound, like the difference between English weather and whether for those who maintain the distinction.

Under the 2020 version of amendment of Kazakh alphabets by president Tokayev, the W has selected as replacement of Cyrillic У, and represents one of Kazakh pronunciation: [w], Kazakh pronunciation: [ʊw] and/or Kazakh pronunciation: [ʏw].

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨w⟩ is used for the voiced labial-velar approximant.

• 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[29]
• IPA-specific symbols related to W: ʍ ɯ ɰ ʷ
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to W:[30] U+1D21 ᴡ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL W and U+1D42 ᵂ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL W
• ʷ : Modifier letter small w is used in Indo-European studies[31]
• ꭩ : Modifier letter small turned w is used in linguistic transcriptions of Scots[32]
• 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

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