Episode 36: Finalizing the Alphabet
The History of English Podcast
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The History of the W and W Sounds in Old English
Anglo-Saxon scribes didn't have a modern letter V or W to work with. They only had that original letter, sometimes written in a curvy U shape and sometimes written in an angular V shape. The first Old English scribes needed to distinguish these sounds. And they ended up giving each sound a separate letter in Old English.
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