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Bookmark or Share- Hwat, hwere, and hwy? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchangeχw (under which Indo-Eur. q w and kw were levelled), which appears as hw in the early forms of the Germanic languages, but is variously modified in their modern forms, appearing in High and Low German as w, in the Scandinavian languages, according to dialect, as hv, kv, and v, in English as wh. For typical forms see what. And later:
- What does “w/” mean? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange2 pieces toast w/ gravy. Is a shorter way of writing "Two pieces of toast with gravy." The B strings tuned w/ low E 7th fret harmonic-(6th string,7th fret). means "The B strings tuned with low E, 7th fret harmonic . . ." Edited to add: As Denis de Bernardy correctly notes in the comment below, w/o means the opposite: without.
- What does "wrt" mean? - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeUsing w.r.t. is definitely acceptable in even the most formal technical contexts, e.g. in published mathematical research. In fact, I remember some discussion of the fact that David Foster Wallace over-enthusiastically embraced this and other technical jargon in a non-fiction book he wrote about the notion of infinity. –
- Are W and Y vowels? - English Language & Usage Stack ExchangeFurther complicating things, w has both voiced and unvoiced qualities, a result of the evolution of the Latin alphabet to replace runic alphabets in Germanic languages. It also picked up other tricks; W in combination with H is usually unvoiced (though some dialects voice "wh" as if it were "w"), representing an unvoiced rounded lip alveolar ...
- phonology - What is the use of "w" as Semi-vowel? - English Language ...The function of the 'y' and 'w' in Yell and Well are not in any material sense different to the leading consonants in Tell, Sell, and Fell. The inclusion of 'y' as a semi-vowel in "cry" or "rhythm" is of course not controversial, but I think it's quite a stretch to go much further than that, when both letters are used as regular consonants.
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