SOUND AND PHILOLOGICAL VALUE. As a pho netic character w is a labial spirant. correspond ing very nearly to u in the position of its forma tion. which gives it its semi-vocalic quality. In words beginning with wh, like white, what, wheel. where the MoVi. original Anglo-Saxon had wh, the is pronounced voicelessly, and with the aspira tion preceding. The older spelling (Anglo Saxon /twit. hwirt, liwooll was transposed after the twelfth century and wh became the generally tweepted orthography. In some words now be ginning with the rr is not original, but has been adopted since the fifteenth century, thus -il-hole (Anglo-Saxon hill), whoop (Middle Eng lish houpen). The silencing of it before r, as in wroth, wrestle, and also in sword. answer, is a later development since the Norman Conquest. The representation of the intermediate me-sonnd in quell. queen, Avliere qn stands for an older etc (Anglo-Saxon rwellan, cirri?), is likewise of later date. (See Q.) The labialized -u; in the form ow at the end of sorrow, arrow, and similar words is evolved from an earlier guttural g or h ( A nglo- Sa xon sorq, curb, etc.). In cow, now,
how (Anglo-Saxon en, nil, hie) the -/a is graphic. The labia toil t nral character of the letter is also evinced in such interchanges as French tiniilanme, guerre, English William, war, which gives rise also 10 such doublets in English as guard and wrird, warranty and guarantee. The strongly marked labial eharaeter of w tends fur thermore to color nil jacent vowels, as in English tiro ( /a), Anglo Saxon ttrii : English who, Anglo Saxon Ii tea. Philologically English u: may rep resent (1) Ind° (termanie m f y), as English new, Gentian at u. Latin /torus. Sanskrit ;mots, lade ( iif yos ; I2.1 111404 :vrmanie gh. as in English warm, I,alin formus. (truck Oepp6t, San skrit On/was, ludo-Germanic *ffityurinns; (3) English isle stands for Germanic itta (Indo-Ger manic kit), as Sanskrit kas, Anglo-Saxon hu-a, English'tcho.
As a symbol in chemistry W stands for t ng st (from the Latinized German designation it(ttm) .