'W' Considered Harmful
runningwithdata.comFunny how it's a non-problem for some other languages, like Portuguese.
While English allows you to naturally create whole sentences using one-syllable words, it's horribly hard to even put two one-syllable words side-by-side in Portuguese.
That, and "W" takes only two syllables to pronounce, making the grand total six in an URL, the same number required to spell the dots (our domains end with ".com.br", making it three times the two-syllable word "ponto"). And now I remember "W" was not even officially considered a letter until recently, so abbreviations with it are rare.
Before considering a letter harmful, please mind the rest of the world that is also using it.
Nobody else says "dub dub dub"?
It's funny because as I started to read this, my first thought was "I'm so thankful that nobody says dub dub dub anymore." My second thought was "I thought this was going to be about how difficult capital W is in deciding character limits since it's so damn wide."
I just ignore it and use the TLD when I have to relay a URL verbally. Most Web servers (at least for sites that I build or refer others to) are configured to serve pages without the www in the URL.
In my more expansive moments I've even used 'trip dub' to cut it down to even fewer syllables than letters.
I've always Stephen Fry's solution: "wuh wuh wuh", or simply say the whole thing, "world wide web". 3 syllables either way.
I'm going to start saying "World Wide Web"
I've been enjoying a meme I've spotted on pirate radio of all places: "all the doubleyous"
I prefer wub wub wub. Actually, I prefer removing it from URLs :-)
"Wubble-you."
'Sextuple-Yu'.
Just kidding... I usually say 'dub dub dub', except to very novice audiences.
[W is] also the only letter whose name doesn’t include the sound it makes.
What about H?
G isn't its most common sound. Neither is Q. U's pronunciation doesn't make much sense, except that its long vowel sound is the same as the letter's. Also, I'm proud to be an American because we pronounce Z "zee" instead of "zed," which makes no sense whatsoever.
In that case, W pronounced "double ewe" does include the sound it makes.
Well, technically there's a 'ch' sound in aitch, so it sort of includes its own sound.
Also in some parts of the world there is a leading H sound, specifically Ireland.
We also pronounce R like 'or' instead of 'are' which causes endless amusement every time I use the abbreviation HR in the states.
In some accents it's pronounced "haitch".
I do know people who pronounce it "haitch."
I got scared for a second and thought that the headline referred to Tungsten.
I have often wondered about a chicago business named W W Grainger, but alas it appears that they did not go for www.ww.grainger.com, opting instead for www.grainger.com.
I found W's multisyllabic name annoying enough that I began calling it "way". That includes the sound it makes, and it rhymes with A, J, and K.
Interesting choice :) The letter 'W' is called a 'way' (English pronounciation) in Dutch.
In French, W is not expressed as "Double U", but as "Double V", which to me makes much more sense.
However it appears infrequently in written French -- the "w" sound, as it would be spoken in English, is written "ou" (eg "oui"). But in French, the letter w is only really seen in loanwords.
As a pun hack, run together Us. I refer to my university as Triple-U A.
Spanish also pronounces it as "Double V", though I can't say anything about the frequency of it throughout the language.
Interesting, it might be a Romance language thing. Paging linguists! Paging all HN linguists!
In dutch, W is pronounced more or less like you would pronounce 'wey' but without the 'y' sound at the end. (the actual sound doesn't exist in english afaik)
In rapid speech I find that 'W' is said less like 'dub ull yew' and more like 'dub uhya', and the 'uhya' is so compressed it's hardly like two distinct syllables. But that might be my Texas showing.
In Minnesota, they always stretch out the dub-ull-yew. However, "rapid speech" is not something you'd ever encounter there.
WHAT! this isnt about Bush!??? but but but.... everyone knows he was harmful!