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alphabet - Is there any shorter pronunciation of W than double-U?


When spelling, every letter in the Alphabet is pronounced by a single syllable, with the only exception of W being pronounced "double-U". (Fun fact, in German it's approximately pronounced like the "ve" in very, but in some strike of cosmic justice Y is pronounced "Yps-e-lon") Why is that? Is there any at least semi-officially accepted one-syllable alternative pronunciation of W?


I checked some related post, e.g. this one, but they are more concerned with the "Why?" instead of the "Why not different?"



Answer



Sometimes if a university is located in the area which name starts with W, such university is called informally U-Dub.


This is the only case I can recall. But I don't believe that using "dub" instead of "double u" is common (or even exists) in any other context. Though I'm not a native speaker.


Here is quote from Wikipedia:



"Double U" is the only English letter name with more than one syllable, except for the occasionally used, though somewhat archaic, "œ" (its name is pronounced similar to "ethel"), and the archaic pronunciation of Z izzard.



Also, in Wikipedia, in addition to "U-Dub" example, it is mentioned that Volkswagen is also sometimes called "V-Dub".


As for the "but-why?!!" part of the question I guess nobody can answer you anything but: "for historical reasons".


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