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With the evolution of time, words have traveled from one language to another thanks to the realities they reveal. The French language is one of these languages which is a full part of these complex languages which contain several particularities. Writing words from this language include the letter W, a letter that was introduced to write loanwords from other languages. Indeed, the pronunciation of the words containing this letter is strongly influenced by the pronunciation of their language of origin. In this article, you will discover how French uses the letter W.
The use of linguistic borrowings
One of the ways the French use the letter W is through linguistic borrowing. For the discovery of other french words starting with w, do not hesitate to read the article. Linguistic borrowing is a process of adoption by which words from another language have been borrowed. In particular, some words used in the French language have been borrowed from ancient languages such as English,
German and a host of others
For example, the word weekend is used in French to define the period from Saturday to Sunday. Indeed, these borrowed words have been integrated and used in the French language since the 17th century. Their number has increased over time. Likewise, these loanwords containing the letter W are not part of the traditional French language. The use of the letter W registered the English word wagon in the French language, which became a French word in its own right.
The use of proper names
Another way the French use the letter W is in proper nouns. Proper nouns are nouns that designate a person, place, brands or institutions that contain the letter W. This practice is explained by the fact that the letter W is often used in other languages. For example, among proper names containing the letter W, the German surname Wagner is frequently used in France.
Similarly, among the place names that contain this letter, there is the city of New York. It is a well-known American city in the world that contains the letter W. Also, the city of Warsaw in Poland, as well as the city of Willemstad in the Netherlands, contains the letter W.
Employ it of W in acronyms
The French also use the letter W in acronyms, which are abbreviations formed from the initial letters of several words representing an expression. These abbreviations are pronounced in alphabetical order. Thus, the letter W rarely used in the French language is often included in abbreviated words. In these specific contexts, the letter W is used to represent English expressions that begin with this letter w.
For example, the abbreviation WWW, which stands for World Wide Web, refers to all web pages available on the internet. There are also acronyms like OWNI, which means media observatory and digital, Wi-Fi which means a wireless network. Many of these acronyms are used today in several fields and facilitate the simplification of compound names for better understanding.
The use of the letter w in slang
Slang is a non-standard language used by people to communicate in an informal context. French slang is often used by people from popular backgrounds. The W is often used in French slang to replace the letters V or U. For example, the word wesh is a slang word meaning hello or how are you. Using the letter W in French slang is a way for people to express themselves differently.