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A Necessary History of the Oddest Letter: W

203 points · 109 comments · NaOH

  1. tndibona · · focus · HN ↗
    On another note - Indians often switch the w’s and v’s. I don’t know why. If you’re Indian - try pronouncing victory, whisky, and wonderful.
    1. frantathefranta · · focus · HN ↗
      Czech is my mother tongue and I have regular issues with this too (have been mainly English speaking for the last 10 years). Czech does not have a /w/ sound and it confuses me the other way as well, like you said with "victory".
      1. pndy · · focus · HN ↗
        My friend from Czechia struggled while pronouncing Polish words including /w/ sound represented by "ł" letter.

        What I find interesting is that /w/ sound

        > V západoslovanských jazycích navazuje na praslovanskou nonpalatální souhlásku [ɫ]

        which is still partially present in the eastern regions of Poland and is associated with sort of "sophisticated" pronunciation used by early 20th century actors - and thus it's also known as "performative ł" or "kresowe ł", or "dark l" in English. It is similar to Arabic "l" present in Allah word.

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