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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. left-struck · · focus · HN ↗
      I’ve always wondered what native English speakers get wrong in this way in various other languages. Anyone got any anecdotes?
      1. crabbone · · focus · HN ↗
        Oh, and in Hebrew, while it's not acknowledged by the speakers themselves, there's also two different ways to pronounce "L" ("lamed"), while English speakers only utilize one of the two ways. So, they manage to say "lomed" (לומד, studies) more or less correctly, but "lo" (לא, no) sounds funny to a native speaker, because the "L" is supposed to be "soft".
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