letters

in older versions of english, there was no "W." instead the sound was made by putting two "U"s together. at one point they combined UU and made it W.

Why do they even call it Double-U if all it is is two V's put together?

Quote: "Why do they even call it Double-U if all it is is two V's put together?

V was the symbol for U long ago. They got a lot of mileage out of it too, until V, U and W officially became three separate letters. If you look at some old monuments you'll see all sorts of V's where there would now be U's.

"E PLVRIBVS VNVM." Just kind of rolls off the tongue, don't it?

M was never two N's. They were always different letters. But when "W" was still "UU" and looked more like "VV", one would write:

"VVE DID IT! VVE VVON THE VVAR!"

But they didn't, of course.

Interesting. So why do the French pronouce "W" as "doobleh-vay" - while pronouncing "U" as "oo" and "V" as "vay?"