Aitch

Why is the eighth letter of the alphabet spelt when the others are simply indicated by the letter itself? Is it to emphasise the ‘huh’ sound is silent when pronouncing the letter?

 

Double-u, zed, ess, cue..

 

Funny you should do that. When I thought of the question I went through the alphabet in my head, spelling each letter. My W, however, was spelt dubbleyou.

 

My crime was greater:

'No, no, NO JUD, no, no, where's...where's...I'm sure, no, no, where's the internet, internet google spelling litters, NO, letters, not pets, yes, oh oooh, Jud will cower, yes double-u, ooh hyphen mmm.'

 

It's spelled queue, because you have to wait for it.

 

o i c y u r o k

 

BOOBS...

No wait, that’s an old calculator trick .

 

I'm confused about this question entirely. Isn't an alphabet simply a sound designator for the language in place, and the "spellings" are simply round-a-bout ways to get to the same designated sound?

 

Okay, I'll throw a spanner in the works here:

Zee
or
Zed?

 

I wish we used zed in America. C and T are too close audibly over the phone to it.

 

Definitely Zed.
Who's Zed?
Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.

 

Actually, after living in the UK for 33 years (it took me about 29 years to stop laughing every time I heard somebody say 'zed') I actually appreciate it. When you're spelling something out loud, 'zed' doesn't sound like any other letter. But zee, bee, cee, dee, eee, gee, pee, vee ...they can get mixed up. Zed, on the other hand, hits the ear like a wallop. I find myself using it now. Whooda thunkit?

 

Yes, but H has an official spelling, so to speak. It's in the dictionary. My point is none of the other letters have a spelling, even though they could.

 

But...

Aitch or Haytch?

 

That depends on the dictionary. There's an old one at my parents that has them all in it under the heading for each letter. Ay, bee, cee, dee, ee eff, gee, haitch, ai, jay, kay, ell, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, yoo, vee, double-yoo, ex, wy, and zed.

 

FAO moderator

 

Oh, I didn't know that.

How do you delete a thread?

 

We should keep it. This really is something we should raise awareness of.

 

Why is w double-you and not double-vee?

 

I found this explanation (no clue wether it's true... ) - it sounds somewhat reasonable to me...

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-name-of-the-letter-W-pronounced-“double-U”-even-though-it-looks-more-like-double-V

To explain it in short (from the text): In Latin U and V are basically the same letter. The Letter was named Double-you due its pronounciation in translation (W closer to the pronounciation of U than V) - the look doesn't matter much.

 

Ivlivs Caesar wouldn't have known what a U was (or a J, for that matter).

 

Originally (or at least during the relevant time period) the W sound was indicated by either whynn (ƿ) or two u's side by each (uu). Since it was a double u when they put them together they just kept the name double-you.