The strange evolution of the letter W from a double U to a double V

Cultures · Published 1 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: It is the twenty-third letter of the Latin alphabet, but its identity is far from settled. While English speakers call it 'double-u', many European languages name it 'double v'. This linguistic tug-of-war reveals a centuries-long struggle between scribal habits, shifting phonetics, and even political bans.

The modern 'W' is a product of phonetic necessity. In Classical Latin, the character did not exist; the /w/ sound was represented by 'V'. However, as the sounds of Latin evolved into Early Medieval Latin, the 'V' began to represent a different sound, leaving the Germanic /w/ phoneme without an adequate written symbol. By the 7th or 8th centuries, writers of Old English and Old High German began using the digraph 'uu' or 'VV' to represent this sound.

The name 'double-u' reflects this historical stage where the letter was viewed as two 'U's. This is why, in many languages, the name literally translates to 'double V', such as the Spanish 'doble ve' or French 'double vé'. The transition from a digraph to a distinct, single letter was a gradual process. By the 14th century, it was likely considered a separate letter in Middle English and Middle German orthography, though it remained an 'outsider' to the traditional Latin alphabet for some time.

The letter's usage remains highly varied today. In English, it is the fifteenth most frequent letter, appearing in about 2.56% of words. In German, it represents the /v/ sound, while in Dutch, it is a labiodental approximant. Its history is even marked by political conflict; in Turkey, the use of 'W' was banned between 1928 and 2013, a move that significantly impacted the Kurdish population and their alphabet.

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