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Gothic Script Caused Letter Confusion
- Gothic (blackletter) handwriting used vertical strokes called minims that made I and U hard to distinguish.
- That visual confusion pushed scribes to invent orthographic workarounds still visible in modern spelling.
W Is A Rounded Variant Of U
- W and U share articulation: both use lip-rounding and similar tongue positions, making W a semi-vowel version of U.
- Linguists often treat initial W and medial U as the same sound in different syllable positions.
Y Acts As The Semi-Vowel Of I
- Y and I share a similar relationship: Y is the semi-vowel form of I, with similar tongue position to E.
- That explains why Latin used I for both vowel /i/ and consonantal /j/ sounds.