# Why w is so unstable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 20, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587 "2016-11-20T20:40:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587/21 "2016-11-22T22:02:12Z")

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> [@Gyrate](#):
>
> Welsh keeps sneaking into all those other languages and stealing all their Ws.

Oui, oui, les Gallois volent tout les lettres W en Français.

(Note: the chances of me getting the grammar right in that sentence are near zero. No doubt someone will be along shortly to correct the errors.)

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587/22 "2016-11-22T22:13:21Z")

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> [@dtilque](#):
>
> Oui, oui, les Gallois volent tout les lettres W en Français.
> 
> (Note: the chances of me getting the grammar right in that sentence are near zero. No doubt someone will be along shortly to correct the errors.)

Missed the edit window, but I’ll correct one error myself. It should be “la langue française”, not “en Français”.

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**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587/23 "2016-11-22T22:32:56Z")

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> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> As a letter, W is relatively new. English hasn’t had the W as long as it has had other letters, and I think that in general it is a relatively new letter. I think the newer letters are, the less stable the sounds they represent tend to be, and the less “universal” the letter tends to be. Not all languages have it, and the ones that do don’t pronounce it the same.

Sound changes in language almost never have anything to do with spelling. As noted, for most of history, most people were illiterate. Besides, the OP mentioned Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese, none of which even use the Roman alphabet and couldn’t have been affected by the letters used in spelling English or any other language that uses that alphabet.

–Mark

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**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-w-is-so-unstable/772587/24 "2016-11-23T00:04:58Z")

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> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> Sound changes in language almost never have anything to do with spelling.

BTW, I’m referring to systematic changes that affect all words containing a particular phoneme, as the OP described. I’m aware that there are “spelling pronunciations”, where the pronunciation of a single word changes because of its spelling, like “calm” pronounced with an L sound, “sneeze” with an S (previously “fneeze”), “buoy” as two syllables, and the British pronunciation of “solder” with an L. Many of these are recent, reflecting more widespread literacy.

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