If 'w' is not a Spanish letter, why is it part of the Spanish alphabet?

Question

I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that it is called 'oove doble' in some areas and 'doble oo' in others. Could someone explain please.

• "uve doble", "doble u", or "doble ve". - Gekkosan Nov 13, 2011

Answer 1

W is part of the Latin alphabet, and Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, just like English and most other European languages. There aren't any Spanish native words that use the letter W, but it is used in foreign words. The same is true of the letter K.

• Thank you KevinB! - Lise-Laroche Nov 12, 2011

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that it is called 'oove doble' in some areas and 'doble oo' in others. Could someone explain please.

In the early Latin alphabet, there was no letter "u" or "w," but there was a "V." As writing forms progressed through the middle ages, the introduction of lower case forms gave rise to the form "u," originally a variant of the letter "V." If you examine early Spanish literature, you can find this intermingling of forms up until at least the early 17th century, as evidenced by the following text written in 1620:

Notice that in this text, the word "uso" does not make use of the alternate form but retains the original Latin form "vso."

Sometime during the middle ages, the sound [w], found in Old English and other early Germanic languages, began being represented by the digraph "VV"(two "V's" side by side) and eventually gave rise to the single character "W." Keeping in mind that in terms of phonetics there was originally little if any distinction between the letters "u" and "v," it should not be difficult to figure out how the terms "doble u" and "doble ve/uve doble" arose.

An interesting aside:
In modern Spanish orthography, the character "b" has replaced the character "u" (itself, an alternate form of the original Latin character "V") in all instances where it occurs in the highlighted text above. For example, in modern Spanish the word "eſcriua" is now written as "escriba.

As you might already be aware, modern Spanish does not make a phonetic distinction between the characters "b" and "v;" however, there are two distinct sounds made by these characters depending on where they occur in a word. For example, when a b/v is not preceded by a pause or nasal consonant, it is represented by the approximant sound [β̞]. Interestingly, the formation of this sound is itself relatively similar to the sound that the letter "u" might make in the triphthongs "iua," "iui" and "aui" as found in the highlighted words "eſcriua," "eſcriuibles" and "auiendo." You might recognize these as the words: escriba," "escribibles (obsolete)" and "habiendo. Keeping these facts in mind can give us both a better understanding of the nature in which this sound is formed in modern Spanish as well as an appreciation of how this phenomenon came about.

• This is muy interesante! Muchas gracias! - Lise-Laroche Nov 12, 2011
• Oh, may I sit at your feet and continue to learn more?!! This is just the kind of post I L O V E ! Thanks ever so much!! - territurtle Nov 12, 2011
• Wow! (or should I say, "¡guau!"? ;-) - TejanoViejo Nov 13, 2011
• All I can say is 'Wow!!' - Dony Nov 13, 2011

Answer 3

Yes 'W' is in the Spanish alphabet, even though it is not use in it's own native words.