History of V

	Revision 6 . . June 4, 2001 2:32 am by (logged).99.96.xxx
	Revision 5 . . May 23, 2001 11:24 pm by Wathiik
	Revision 4 . . May 23, 2001 11:24 pm by Wathiik
	Revision 3 . . May 23, 2001 11:23 pm by Wathiik
	Revision 2 . . (edit) May 21, 2001 8:50 am by (logged).249.141.xxx
	Revision 1 . . May 21, 2001 6:24 am by Wathiik

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Difference (from prior major revision) (no other diffs)

Changed: 1c1,3

Like F, Greek 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).

1. Like F, Greek 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). 2. V represents the number 5 (five) in Roman numerals