When did the letter L come out?

The 23rd letter of the English alphabet is a bit of a wonder. The humble W is the only letter of the alphabet with a three-syllable name. It is also one of three letters (H, W, and Y) with a name that does not indicate its phonetic use. The complications of W are twofold because of its name, double-u, and its shape, double V.

What sound does W represent?

OK, we’re going to get a little technical—and very phonological—here. In English, the letter W represents a sound that is a voiced bilabial-velar glide. To make the W sound, you have to round both lips (bilabial) and raise the back of the tongue (velar). Voiced means the vocal cords vibrate while making a sound, and a glide is a speech sound that has characteristics of both a vowel and consonant.

But, in other languages, the letter W makes different sounds. In German, a W is pronounced like an English V. In Welsh, W is a vowel, making a U-type sound found in such loanwords as cwm.

If you enjoy this history, you’ll love to meet two extinct letters of the alphabet.

What does the letter U have to do with it?

The English alphabet, if you want to sing along with us, has 26 letters. Added just ahead of J and V, W was the 24th to join this tuneful set. Now, the English alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, which did not have this trio of J, V, and W. J came from I, and V and W, from U.

In Latin, U represented a W sound, which could only occur before a vowel. Consider equus, “horse,” pronounced like [ ek-woos ]. You see that literal double U, that UU, and how it is associated with our W sound?

While the W disappeared from much of Latin pronunciation as it evolved into the Romance languages, one influential variety of French, Norman French, did have a W sound, especially as a result of the Germanic words that flooded the language from Viking incursions into northern France. And Germanic languages love a W. So, Norman French used a double U to represent W sounds in words.

(This history explains pairs like warranty/guarantee, but we’ll save that story for a different time.)

Meanwhile in Anglo-Saxon England … Old English used the Latin alphabet, but with some twists, including a letter wynn. It was a character (ƿ) representing the sound (w) in Old English and early Middle English manuscripts, based on a rune with the same phonetic value.

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But why is W so V-shaped?

The printing press came to English in 1476, and it used a single double-U block, helping cement W as its own letter by the early 1500s. As the printing press evolved, so did the shape of the letters.

But then a double-V shape came into favor (in part because of ancient Roman inscriptions), yielding VV for W, and over time, those VV‘s became written as a one, continuous shape.

And now we have W. The rest is … XYZ.

Interested in more alphabet history? Read about “Why Was Z Removed From The Alphabet (And Then Put Back)?“

Most of us know the English alphabet backwards and forwards. We learned our letters as children and we forever have the ear-worm of the alphabet song stuck in our heads, but did you know that there were actually a few letters that didn't quite make the cut for our modern alphabet?

After Christianity took over a great deal of Europe, the Latin alphabet was introduced, overtaking the previously used runic alphabet and eliminating of few of these interesting letters:

Thorn (Þ, þ)

You're probably quite a bit more familiar with this letter than you might realize. If you've ever seen the word "ye" used in a tavern or on a business sign, as in "ye merry" or "ye olde", the word ye is not actually pronounced using the y sound at all. The y is really used to substitute for the letter thorn, derived from the runic alphabet of Futhark, and it's pronounced like "th", as in the word "the". Due to most printing presses not having the letter thorn available, it became common practice to use a y instead, leading to "ye". So, the next time you see "Ye Olde Brick Tavern" or something similar in your travels, you'll recognize that it's really just saying "The" after all.

Wynn (Ƿ, ƿ)

If you look at the original Latin alphabet, you'll realize that it's pretty much the exact same one that we use in present day aside from the stark omission of the letter w. Wynn was originally created as an adaption from the Latin alphabet for the Futhark alphabet because it lacked a specific letter to fit a "w" sound, something that was heavily used in the English language. Eventually the alphabet evolved into combining two u's to make our current letter W, eliminating the need for the letter wynn.

Eth (Ð, ð)

Eth is a letter that originates from the Irish language. Much like the letter Thorn, it was also created to represent a "th" sound, but more so for words like "thought" instead of "the". Because of similarities and how Eth and Thorn could sound the same depending on accents, Eth was phased out in favor or thorn.

Ash (Æ, æ)

The letter Ash is another lost letter that you've probably seen a few times here and there, more than likely in old church texts. The letter Ash, or, "æ" is named after the Futhark rune ash, and can most commonly be recognized for pronunciation in such words as encyclopedia/encyclopædia.

Ethel (Œ, œ)

The letter Ethel is probably more recognizable in modern-day as a woman's name, but it's actually based on the Futhark rune of Odal, transcribed as œ. Very similar to ash, it possesses a long e sound, such as in the word subpœna. As time went on, the English language chose instead to use the letter e in place of ethel.

There are a few odds and ends of the English alphabet that were not used in entirely official capacities, but are still interesting nonetheless. Feel free to investigate their stories, and be sure to study further histories on the mentioned five lost letters of the English language.

How old is the letter L?

Who invented the L?

When was the letter V invented?

Who invented alphabets A to Z?