Double U: When Two /u/ Make One /w/ and the Phonetics of Consonantalization
摘要
Double U is unique. Double U is a visually iconic name—for one followed by another . But is there something about the pronunciation of two /u/ which would conspire to make one /w/? This chapter explores the phonetic origins of the name Double U by investigating the fluid interrelationships which obtain between the vowels phoneticians classify as “high” and the consonants they classify as “semi-vowels.” But even the ancient Romans were implicitly aware of some of these phonetic regularities, representing pairs of vowels and semi-vowels with the same dual-purpose letters. In fact, had the spelling practices of Cicero and Caesar become standard, there is a good chance the semi-vowel /j/ (and, as a phono-historical consequence, many instances of /J̌/ (/ʤ/)) would be represented by a letter called “Double I”—not the letter Jay. What’s more, the consonant-initial letter name Yue for is itself the by-product of a high vowel becoming a semi-vowel—as is the consonant-initial letter name Wye for . Double U tells us more than just what can happen when one /u/ is sequenced before another vowel. Double U is an example of the much broader phenomenon of the “hardening,” the consonantalization, of speech sounds.