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V, or v, is the twenty-second and fifth-to-last letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''vee'' (pronounced ), plural ''vees''.


History

The letter V ultimately comes from the Phoenician letter ''
waw Waw or WAW may refer to: * Waw (letter), a letter in many Semitic abjads * Waw, the velomobile * Another spelling for the town Wau, South Sudan * Waw Township, Burma *Warsaw Chopin Airport, an international airport serving Warsaw, Poland (IATA ai ...
'' by way of U. See U for details. During the Late Middle Ages, two
minuscule Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
glyphs of U developed which were both used for sounds including and modern . The pointed form "v" was written at the beginning of a word, while a rounded form "u" was used in the middle or end, regardless of sound. So whereas "valour" and "excuse" appeared as in modern printing, "have" and "upon" were printed as "haue" and "vpon". The first distinction between the letters "u" and "v" is recorded in a Gothic script from 1386, where "v" preceded "u". By the mid-16th century, the "v" form was used to represent the consonant and "u" the vowel sound, giving us the modern letter V. U and V were not accepted as distinct letters until many years later. The rounded variant became the modern-day version of U, and the letter's former pointed form became V.


Letter

In the
International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
, represents the voiced labiodental fricative. See Help:IPA. In English, special rules of orthography normally apply to the letter V: * Traditionally, V is not doubled to indicate a
short vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
, the way, for example, P is doubled to indicate the difference between "super" and "supper". However, that is changing with newly coined words, such as , "divvy up" and "skivvies". * Words that ends in a sound (except ''of'') normally spell that sound ''-ve'', regardless of the pronunciation of the vowel before it. This rule does not apply to transliterations of Slavic and Hebrew words, such as ''Kiev'', or to words that started out as abbreviations, such as ''sov'' for ''sovereign''. * The short u sound is spelled ''o'', not ''u'', before the letter v. This originated with a mediaeval scribal practice designed to increase legibility by avoiding too many vertical strokes ( minims) in a row. Like J, K, Q, X, and Z; V is not used very frequently in English. It is the sixth least frequently used letter in the English language, with a frequency of about 1% in words. V is the only letter that cannot be used to form an English two-letter word in the British and Australian versions of the game of Scrabble. It is one of only two letters (the other is C) that cannot be used this way in the American version. The letter appears frequently in the Romance languages, where it is the first letter of the second person plural pronoun and (in Italian and Catalan) the stem of the imperfect form of most verbs.


Name in other languages

* ca, ve, pronounced ; in dialects that lack contrast between and , the letter is called ''ve baixa'' "low B/V". * cs, vé *french: vé *german: Vau * it, vi or ''vu'' * pl, fał * pt, vê * es, uve is recommended, but ''ve'' is traditional. If V is pronounced in the second way, it would have the same pronunciation as the letter B in Spanish (i.e. after pause or nasal sound, otherwise ); thus further terms are needed to distinguish ''ve'' from ''be''. In some countries it is called ''ve corta'', ''ve baja'', ''ve pequeña'', ''ve chica'' or ''ve labiodental''. In Japanese, V is called a variety of names originating in English, most commonly ブイ or , but less nativized variants, violating to an extent the phonotactics of Japanese, of ヴィー , ヴイ or , and ヴィ are also used. The phoneme in Japanese is used properly only in loanwords, where the preference for either or depends on many factors; in general, words that are perceived to be in common use tend toward .


Pronunciation and use

In most languages which use the Latin alphabet, has a voiced bilabial or labiodental sound. In English, it is a voiced labiodental fricative. In most dialects of Spanish, it is pronounced the same as , that is, or . In Corsican, it is pronounced , , or , depending on the position in the word and the sentence. In contemporary
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
, it is pronounced in most loan-words while in native German words, it is always pronounced . In standard Dutch it is traditionally pronounced as but in many regions it is pronounced as in some or all positions. In Native American languages of North America (mainly Muskhogean and Iroquoian), represents a nasalized central vowel, /ə̃/. In
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
Pinyin, while is not used, the letter is used by most input methods to enter letter , which most keyboards lack (
Romanised Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
Chinese is a popular method to enter Chinese text). Informal
romanizations Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
use V as a substitute for the close front rounded vowel /y/, properly written ''ü'' in pinyin and Wade–Giles. In Irish, the letter is mostly used in loanwords, such as ''veidhlín'' from English ''violin''. However the sound appears naturally in Irish when /b/ (or /m/) is lenited or "softened", represented in the orthography by (or "mh"), so that ''bhí'' is pronounced , ''an bhean'' (the woman) is pronounced , etc. For more information, see Irish phonology. This letter is not used in the Polish alphabet, where is spelled with the letter instead, following the convention of
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
.


Other systems

In the 19th century, was sometimes used to transcribe a palatal click, , a function since partly taken over by .


Related characters


Descendants and related letters in the Latin alphabet

*U u : Latin letter U, originally the same letter as V *W w : Latin letter W, descended from U *Ỽ ỽ : Middle Welsh V *V with
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s: Ṽ ṽ Ṿ ṿ Ʋ ʋ
The palatal hook () is a type of hook diacritic formerly used in the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent palatalized consonants. It is a small, leftwards-facing hook joined to the bottom-right side of a letter, and is distinguished from ...
*
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
-specific symbols related to V: *ᶹ : Modifier letter small v with hook is used in phonetic transcription *𐞰 : Modifier letter small v with right hook is a superscript IPA letter *Ʌ ʌ ᶺ: Turned v *ⱴ : V with curl * Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to V: ** ** ** **


Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

*𐤅:
Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...
letter
Waw Waw or WAW may refer to: * Waw (letter), a letter in many Semitic abjads * Waw, the velomobile * Another spelling for the town Wau, South Sudan * Waw Township, Burma *Warsaw Chopin Airport, an international airport serving Warsaw, Poland (IATA ai ...
, from which the following symbols originally derive **Υ υ : Greek letter Upsilon, from which V derives ***Y y : Latin letter Y, which, like V, also derives from Upsilon (but was taken into the alphabet at a later date) ***Ѵ ѵ : Cyrillic letter izhitsa, also descended from Upsilon ***У у :
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
letter u, also descended from Upsilon via the digraph of omicron and upsilon **** Ү ү :
Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...
letter Ү, descended from У and izhitsa and used in the scripts for languages in the former Soviet Union and currently the Russian Federation, as well as in Mongolian. Most commonly it represents /y/ or /ʏ/.


Ligatures and abbreviations

*℣ : Versicle sign *Ꝟ ꝟ : Forms of V were used for medieval scribal abbreviations


Computing codes

: 1


Other representations

V is the symbol for
vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pas ...
. It is number 23 on the periodic table.
Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr. and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991) ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, p ...
derives its green coloring from either
vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pas ...
or
chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
. v, v., and vs can also be used as an abbreviation for the word
versus Versus (Latin, 'against') may refer to: Film and television * ''Versus'' (2000 film), a Japanese zombie film * ''Versus'' (2016 film), a Russian sports drama film * ''Versus'' (2019 film), a French thriller film * Versus (TV channel), form ...
when between two or more competing items (Ex: Brown v. Board of Education).


See also

*V to mean the number 5, in
Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
*, in music theory *
VEE (disambiguation) VEE or Vee may refer to: * V, a letter * VEE, an IC power-supply pin label * Vee, Estonia, a village * Vee (surname), including a list of people with the name * Vee belt, a type of mechanical belt * VEE Corporation, now VStar Entertainment Gro ...
*∨, * (✓) * (✌ or 🖔)


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{Latin alphabet, V} ISO basic Latin letters