W Is For Why

‘W’ is for ‘Why’. It’s also for ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where and ‘When’. It isn’t for ‘How’ but there is a ‘W’ in ‘How’.

These are the words we use to create questions. Questions that need answers.

And I have a question about ‘W’.

And my question is a ‘why’ question.

This is my question:

Why is it called double ‘u’ and not double ‘v’ when it clearly looks more like two ‘v’s than two ‘u’s.

The French call it double ‘v’.

But we call it double ‘u’.

Why?

Actually the answer is quite easy to find.

You can look it up on a number of websites.

Website begins with ‘W’.

As does ‘Wikipedia’ which is often the website I go to for answers. Sometimes Wikipedia is wrong about stuff.

Wrong begins with a ‘W’ but it’s a silent ‘W’. Which causes many school children to get the spelling of ‘wrong’ wrong.

But I think Wikipedia is right about the origins of ‘W’.

‘Right’ sounds like ‘write’.

The English language is crazy.

So it’s not surprising that we would call a letter that looks like two ‘v’s a name which suggests it looks like two ‘u’s.

The English language is not especially full of words that begin with the letter ‘X’.

So tomorrow will be a challenge.