A Necessary History of the Oddest Letter: W

Commenters debated the quirks and history of the letter W. Sharlin summarized how Finnish orthography, created by Mikael Agricola in the 1500s, sometimes used w for sounds now written u or v, leaving w largely absent from modern Finnish except in surnames or archaic affectations like "wanha." Ortusdux pointed out that W is unique in not appearing in its own pronunciation, a point echoed by anecdotes about Microsoft Sam reading the letter slowly (anon_cow1111) and the BBC's failed push to say "hit web" instead of "http://www" (roryirvine). ButlerianJihad and others mentioned historical and trademark oddities tied to repeated Ws.

Many commenters focused on pronunciation inefficiencies. AnodicElegy argued that "double‑you" being three syllables makes acronyms longer - nkrisc and Sharlin highlighted WWW as especially bulky - so people propose short forms: pavlov said it’s often called "dub," ButlerianJihad suggested "dub‑three," and andsoitis and AnodicElegy toyed with "woo" or "woe." Others offered language comparisons and alternatives: jfengel and MrBuddyCasino gave German variants ("vay"/"weh"), yongjik suggested swapping the names of Y and W, and BoorishBears mockingly recommended a puff of air. The thread mixed linguistic history, practical complaints, playful renaming campaigns, and nostalgic anecdotes.