2509: No 'Loue' Lost: The Break-Vp of U&V Oct 25, 2021

The distinction of U and V as it is now was neither invented nor random, but even into the 16th century, there was not a clear distinction between V and U. Often, V was used in either case if it would fall at the beginning of a word, and in the middle or end of a word, it would be a U, regardless of sound. This discernment between U and V as a phonetic marker happened starting during the renaissance, since Germanic languages and even modern Romance languages have this sounds distinct, but the process was not immediate. This is also, in part, why many words have a so-called silent E at the end, as it helped with disambiguation when the sound was [v] as in 'love' but not 'low' (or 'lou', especially before W came on the scene).