V

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Like F, Greek Yøéëùí (Ypsilon) has Semitic Waw as its letter of origin. The Etruscans somehow simplified the letter to V. Its Etruscan sound value was /u/; but since Latin lacked a letter for /w/, Romans used V for both /w/ and /u/. In Romance languages, V came to represent /v/ which developed from /w/; as German W – which originally was pronounced as the English letter – was pronounced /v/ since Middle High German times. At the same time, V was in German pronounced as in English, but the German Vau soon stood for /f/ again (the same is probably now happening in Dutch).


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