Pronunciation of the letter "W"

Hello everyone,

I've always wondered about the pronunciation of the letter "w" as an alphabet. My dictionary says that it's pronounced /dVbl=ju:/ but every native speakers around me seem to pronounce the letter without the /l/ sound, so to me it sounds like dubba-you (/dVb@ju:/).

Is it because my ear isn't good enough to hear the sound or do they simply not pronounce it? Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Many people don't pronounce the L. You're not mishearing it.

I found many Germans and Dutch people say the letter 'W' like 'V'.

Why is that?

>I found many Germans and Dutch people say the letter 'W' like 'V'<

simple because W is in fact double V in modern times,not double U ! so its pronunced just like V.(W in Polish is just like V)

>> I found many Germans and Dutch people say the letter 'W' like 'V'.

Why is that? <<

Because the English 'W' sound does not exist in German (no idea about Dutch, but I assume not if this is the case) — since it's a sound which they don't normally have to make, they find it very difficult to pronounce. There are some native English accents where the 'W' sound is pronounced as 'V' — Bermudian, I believe.

"since it's a sound which they don't normally have to make, they find it very difficult to pronounce"
that's strange, really..in my native language we don't have the 'W' sound; however it's quite easy for me to pronounce it.

Shakespeare invented the letter W and the letter J.

All the languages that have the letters J and W borrowed them from English.

Before Shakespeare invented them, the English language had only 24 letters.

No. Silly me. Shakespeare invented the letters V and J.

He couldn't have invented W cos his first name is William.

Shakespeare also invented 1700 English words, including "assassination" and "bump."

>>>> I found many Germans and Dutch people say the letter 'W' like 'V'.

Why is that? <<

Because the English 'W' sound does not exist in German (no idea about Dutch, but I assume not if this is the case) — since it's a sound which they don't normally have to make, they find it very difficult to pronounce. There are some native English accents where the 'W' sound is pronounced as 'V' — Bermudian, I believe.<<

Actually, things are not this simple. What <w> marks in German varies depending on the dialect, and only in standard Hochdeutsch does it necessarily mark /v/ -> [v] proper. One must remember that Middle High German actually had /w/ -> [w] for what was and is written <w>, and such has split into a number of different realizations in various New High German dialects. In addition to the [v] used for such in standard Hochdeutsch, one will also hear [v\] being used, which is an approximant rather than a fricative, and [w] is also used in Upper German dialects and varieties of standard Hochdeutsch influenced by such (for example, the standard Hochdeutsch used as the acrolect in German-speaking areas of Switzerland).

As for Dutch, at least in standard Dutch (Algemeen Nederlands), <w> corresponds to /v\/ -> [v\]; note that the phoneme /v\/ actually contrasts with another phoneme /v/ in Dutch, even though they might be hard to tell apart for non-Dutch-speakers.

Or was that U and J?

He invented U and J.

I'll get it right eventually.