Why do we call "W" a double U, when in reality it looks like a double V?

Answer 1

The earliest form of the letter W was a doubled V used in the 7th century by the earliest writers of Old English; it is from this digraph that the modern name "double U" comes. This digraph was not extensively used, as its sound was usually represented instead by the runic wynn (Ƿ), but W gained popularity after the Norman Conquest, and by 1300 it had taken wynn's place in common use. Other forms of the letter were a pair of Vs whose branches cross in the middle. An obsolete, cursive form found in the nineteenth century in both English and German was in the form of an "n" whose rightmost branch curved around as in a cursive "v" (compare the shape of ƕ).

The sounds /w/ (spelled with U/V) and /b/ of Classical Latin developed into a bilabial approximant /β/ between vowels, in Early Medieval Latin. Therefore, V no longer represented adequately the Germanic /w/. In German, the phoneme /w/ later became /v/; this is why German W represents that sound. In Dutch, W is a labiodental approximant (with the exception of words with EEUW, which have /eːw/), or other diphthongs containing -uw.

Answer 2

I read a long time ago that it has been called double v

here, just found this by web search on "double u double v"


http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2006/04/25/583307.aspx

Answer 3

Because its pronunciation is more akin to two "U's" than two "V's".

Originally there was no W. The practice to make that sound was to put two "U's" together. Hence the double U.

Gotta go back a few centuries to see that happening.

Answer 4

Because when most people write with joined up letters, they actually write a double U as it is a much quicker fluid motion than the sharp edged V's.

Stupid....but true.

Answer 5

well it comes from a latin word
and we developed the english language after it was named.
so it really doesn't have anything to do with what it looks like, that's just what it was named

Answer 6

because people used to write in cursive, and the 'w' looks like two 'u's

Answer 7

dub-a-u