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2023-03-08 20:43 dustin  
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the following little story about how ^ meets the fuvwy-family explains in deep detail the histories of the letters “u“, “v“ and “w“ which are very closely related. For a better overview of the main steps in these histories, i made extra overview boxes (like this one). If you're interested in the facts without reading all my story around them, you can just jump from one box to another! And for just a brief summary, you can jump to the very end of this comment :d  
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^ remembers well what q-monkey told him a few caves ago: "u“ is always flying around! so when ^ enters the next cave of his abc journey, he immediately looks up to the ceiling, and indeed, he finds "u" flying around there! and it's not alone!  
  
^: er... oh, i hadn't expected so many of you here!  
  
four birds: hi rocky! we're u, v, w and f!   
  
^: ehm... hi! well... are you all a big family?  
  
u: yes, we are! together with our daddy "y"! but he's not here at the moment. he said he didn't want to spoil you about him!  
  
f: but i decided to stay here, although you know me already from an earlier cave!  
  
^: ehm... yes, but i didn't know yet that you were a bird!  dustin  only wrote that your proto-sinaitic root was a symbol for a hook or a club!  
  
f: ah, so did he? then he probably forgot to mention that our egyptian hieroglyphic great-great-grandpa might have been a bird!  
  
^: might have been?  
  
f: yes, the historians aren't really sure about that.  
  
^: as usual...  
  
f: well yes, but if we have the possibility to be birds, then we take it of course! it's a much more interesting life than a life as a club or hook!  
  
^: yeah, that's pretty understandable :d  
  
u: hey rocky, didn't you come here because of me? now you're talking to "f" all the time! "f" is always pushing himself to the front! just because we, u, v and w, are triplets, f always thinks he's missing out!  
  
f: hey, that's not true! you always think you're missing out because you're the youngest of us and because your [u] sound barely exists in english language!  
  
^: hey hey, please don't argue! how can "u" be the youngest of you if "u", "v" and "w" are triplets?   
  
u: well, we three weren't really created at the same time. we just call ourselves triplets because we're next to each other in the alphabet and because our histories are even closer realted than to "f"!  
  
f: even closer related... phhhh...  
  
v: oh "f", don't feel offended. you're still our oldest brother, the only one of us who was already in the ancient greek alphabet!  
  
f: before they deleted me. hmph.  
  
w: at least they kept you as a numeral symbol!  
  
^: i'm slightly confused. please, if you would, tell me everything from the beginning!  
  
F: well, if you were attentive when you were in my earlier cave, then you should already know the beginning of our history!  
  
^: oh, ehm, yes, of course! So, the letter here around my inbox (bottom-left shape), that's your proto-sinaitic predecessor, isn't it?  
  
W: very good, yes! That's our great-grandfather who looked like a hook or club!  
  
^ and the next shape here to my right (second-left shape at the bottom), that's the phoenician letter “waw“, if i'm not mistaken!  
  
V: indeed, it is! That's our grandpa! He looks like a rounded version of our daddy „y“!  
  
W: and he always makes my sound! [w] as in “water“! Wwwhere is my wwwater wwwhich i wwwant to drink...  
  
^: is that your w-song? :d  
  
w: yes! :d it's thanks to our sounds that we've become such a big family!  
  
V: that's true! However, my [v] sound wasn't yet used by the phoenicians! I'm vvvery vvvicious to the vvvoodoo ovvver there...  
  
^: oh no, please not! Don't harm voodoos or i'll explode!  
  
V: not really, that's only my v-song!  
  
^ ah, good!  
  
F: the phoenicians didn't use my [f] sound either. Fffive fffrightening fffireffflies are ffflying afffter you...  
  
^: what? Where?  
  
F: not really, you little silly! :d That's only my f-song!  
  
^: oh, yes, of course.  
  
U: my sound was used by the phoenicians, but they didn't write me because they didn't write any vowels!  
  
^: ah yes, i know. And what's your u-song?  
  
U: well... i don't have one :(  
  
^: oh, why not?  
  
U: because in english, i'm spoken more like [a] than [u]! “butterfly“, “uncle“, “funny“... that's all not really my [u] sound!  
  
^: oh, I see. But on the other hand, aren't there also words where the „u“ is spoken more [u]-ish? “you“, “use“, “wonderful“...  
  
v: that's what we always tell you! See? Rocky also thinks that you can make a nice u-song in english! And your best friend, the q-monkey, also has the same opinion!  
  
U: well ok, maybe you're all right. I'll write my own u-song!  
  
^: Cool! Oh, wait! Cool... cool... cool... i think the “oo“ in “cool“ also sounds quite [u]-ish! Perhaps you can also use some “oo“ words for your u-song!  
  
(u nods and immediately starts writing on his song.)  
  
w: so, to sum it up, my [w] sound was the only one  for which the phoenicians needed a letter, and they used our grandpa „waw“ for it. So far, so easy!  
  
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in this and the following boxes, i'm making an overview about which sounds were written with which letters in which languages, to make it easier to keep track.  
The following four similar sounds are important for the history of the letters “u“, “v“ and “w“  
the [f] sound as in “fire“:  
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_labiodental_fricative" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_labiodental_fricative</a>  
the [u] sound which is approximately the sound of the „ou“ in „you“:  
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_back_rounded_vowel" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_back_rounded_vowel</a>  
the [v] sound as in “very“:  
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labiodental_fricative</a>  
the [w] sound as in “water“:  
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labial%E2%80%93velar_approximant" target="external">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_labial%E2%80%93velar_approximant</a>  
  
overview 1: the phoenicians  
[f] sound: no use  
[u] sound: no letter because they didn't write vowels  
[v] sound: no use  
[w] sound: letter "waw" in 6th position of the alphabet  
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f: and then came the ancient greeks. You remember what they did, rocky?  
  
^: yes, i remember  dustin  told me that in your f-cave too! They made two letters out of the phoenician “waw“: one was “ypsilon“ and the other “digamma“ which was already shaped like an “f“!  
  
f: and why did they do that?  
  
^: because of the vowels! Unlike the phoenicians, the greeks wanted to write vowel letters as well as consonants, and they used “ypsilon“ for the [u] sound while the “digamma“ was spoken [w], just like the phoenician “waw“!  
  
F: and what about the alphabetical positions of both letters?  
  
^: well, your look-alike “digamma“ was kept in 6th position just like the phoenician “waw“, while “ypsilon“ was put at the end of their alphabet, behind the greek “t“-version “tau“.  
  
F: wow, you remembered all that! Very good! :)  
  
^: thanks!  
  
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overview 2: the ancient greeks  
[f] sound: no use  
[u] sound: letter “ypsilon“ which was put at the end of their alphabet behind “tau“  
[v] sound: no use  
[w] sound: letter “digamma“ which was kept in 6th position  
  
this might be a good moment to look at the (modern) greek alphabet again:  
<a href="https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/images/caves/OibRhTJYXoxJ.png?type=20230113003958" target="external">https://boulderdash.krissz.hu/images/caves/OibRhTJYXoxJ.png?type=20230113003958</a>  
you can see that:  
\ the “y“ ist still behind the “t“ today.   
\ however, “y“ is no longer the last letter. Four more letters have been added to the alphabet later on.  
\ the “f“/“digamma“ letter, originally in sixth position, has been deleted meanwhile.  
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^: but now i have a dozen of questions! First of all, where are the “u“, “v“ and “w“ equivalents in the greek alphabet if they had “t“ directly followed by “y“?  
  
v: don't you know the answer yet? Remember that we're all one family, we four and “y“!  
  
^: wait... are you saying that you three (points at u, v and w) were created out of the greek “y“?  
  
v: exactly! That's why we're also positioned behind the “t“ in the latin alphabet, just like our daddy “y“ in greek! And i was actually the first! I was created before “u“ and “w“!  
  
^: tell me more!  
  
V: my pleasure! As you know, after the ancient greeks came the etruscians. They adopted the “y“ without any changes at first. But later, as their writing developped, they became a bit lazy and stopped to write the bottom vertical line!  
  
^: what... of course! “y“ without the vertical line becomes “v“! :d  
  
v: yes, indeed! And now you also see that i was actually born as a vowel, because the etruscians still spoke me [u]!  
  
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overview 3: the etrusicans  
[f] sound: unlike the greeks, the etruscians did use that sound and wrote it with the digraph „fh“ before they created an own letter for it which looked much like an “8“  
[u] sound: letter “v“, created out of “y“ by deleting the vertical line  
[v] sound: no use  
[w] sound: letter „f“ in sixth position, just like greek “digamma“  
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^: wow! And what about your brother, the letter “u“?  
  
u: well, i started as an “alternate form“ of my brother “v“! he cannot stop teasing me for that! :p  
  
v: but it's just too funny! :d that was an invention by the romans, they wrote me either angular or round, both versions were equivalent and didn't make any phonetic difference!  
  
F: now rocky, one last test question: do you remember what changes the romans did with me?  dustin  told you that in the f-cave too!  
  
^: yes, of course :d ehm...let me think...  
  
f:....................  
  
^:...................  
  
f:...........................  
  
^:..........................ah yes! They decided that you should get the [f] sound. The etruscians had already used that sound, unlike the greeks, and they had written it with the digraph “fh“. Now the romans wanted to write the [f] sound with one single letter and gave it to you!  
  
F: fffantastic! :d  
  
^: thanks! :d but then, what happened to the [w] sound which had formerly been written with “f“? didn't the romans use the [w] sound?  
  
U and v: yes, they did! And they gave us that sound!  
  
^: but didn't you already have the [u] sound?  
  
U and v: yes, we did!  
  
^: and the romans still didn't split you, giving one of you the [u] sound and the other one the [w] sound?  
  
U and v: no, they didn't!  
  
^: ils sont fous, ces romains!  
  
U, v, w and f: oui! :d  
  
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overview 4: the romans   
[f] sound: letter “f“. this basically ends the history of “f“. no more changes until today.  
[u] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
[v] sound: no use  
[w] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
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w: now it's my turn to tell! My story starts right here!  
  
^: oh, i was already wondering when you would join the party!  
  
W: well, in fact,  i was never part of the roman alphabet. Nor was “u“, he stayed just an alternate form of “v“ until the end of the roman empire and further on.  
  
V: hihi :d  
  
u: very funny. Pffft.  
  
^: and i know that “j“ was never a roman letter, either. So the roman alphabet had only 23 letters, right?  
  
W: yep! Well, now comes my story! First of all, one more detail about the romans which will become important: their [w] sound gradually changed into a [v] sound during the centuries.  
  
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overview 5: the romans (later when [w] changed into [v] in latin):  
[u] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
[v] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
[w] sound: no use  
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w: now let's move on in time, after the end of the roman empire. The next important event was the textualisation of germanic languages.  
  
^: ah! So until then, germanic languages knew no writing?  
  
W: well, to be precise, yes, they did. Already around 200 a.d., germanic inscriptions existed, written with runes. But then around 1000 a.d., it becomes interesting for us because they switched to the usage of the latin alphabet instead of the runes.  
  
^: ah!  
  
W: now many germanic languages used the [w] sound which the romans had dropped from their language. So the germanics had no letter for that sound. At first, they wrote it with “v“/“u“, but that was already the third sound for my brothers, and they found that was a bit much.  
  
^: makes sense.  
  
W: so then, the germanics quickly came up with a better solution, a quite common one: they wrote the [w] sound with a digraph. But it was a special one, because it was two times the same letter!  
  
^: ah! Can it be... i mean, you're still called „double u“ today...  
  
w: exactly! :d  
  
u (talking to v): ha! “w“ is named after me, not after you, you silly!  
  
V: who's the silly, you alternate form, huh? :p  
  
^ (to w): so you were literally born as a double u!  
  
W: or a double v likewise! That's how I'm still called in French today, for example! “u“ and “v“ were still two forms of the same letter at that time!  
  
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overview 6: germanic languages (after they adopted the latin alphabet)  
[u] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
[v] sound: letter “v“, alternate form “u“  
[w] sound: digraph “vv“, alternate form “uu“ (double u!)  
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^: fantastic!  
  
U, v and w: isn't it? From there on, it was just a matter of time until “w“ and “u“ were accepted as seperate letters. In the 16th century, the first inscriptions with a 24 letter alphabet (including “w“) can be found. Shortly afterwards, finally, someone got the clever idea to split “u“ and “v“ and give one of them the vowel sound [u] and the other one the consonant sound [v]. it took two more centuries until that was officially accepted, too. Finally, each of us got his own sound! Ils sont fous, ces humains!  
  
^: well, sometimes i think that too :d   
  
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overview 7: present day (not in all languages of course, every language developped differently!)  
[u] sound: letter “u“, accepted as a seperate letter in the 18th century a.d.  
[v] sound: letter “v“  
[w] sound: letter “w“, created out of the digraph “vv“ and accepted as a seperate letter in the 16th century a.d.  
  
^:now i've got one more question, one thing i don't understand yet.  
  
V: what is it?  
  
^: what about your daddy? What about “y“?  
  
w: what do you mean?  
  
^: well, you just explained how the ancient greek “ypsilon“ became the latin letter “v“. now what about the latin “y“? how did that one enter the latin alphabet?  
  
V: ah. That.  
  
W: very good question!  
  
^:................................  
  
u, v and w:....................................................  
  
^: ehm, you won't give me the answer now, right?  
  
U, v and w: exactly! :d daddy said he wants to reveal this last secret of our family himself! Two more caves in your abc journey and you'll know!  
  
^: hehe alright, i'm curious!  
  
^ and the four birds said goodbye for now, and if you read everything carefully, you saw that we have two more entries for our “youngest letters of the alphabet“ list!  
  
1. letter “j“ (19th century a.d.)  
2. letter “u“ (18th century a.d.)  
3. letter “w“ (16th century a.d.)  
4. ?  
5. letter “g“ (3rd century b.c.)  
  
s u m m a r y of the most important facts about the history of u, v and w:  
\ “v“ was created out of the greek letter “y“ by deleting the bottom vertical line.  
\ “u“ was just an alternate form of “v“ for a very long time, without any seperate meaning. It was only in the 18th century a.d. When “u“ was finally accepted as a seperate letter and added to the alphabet!  
\ “w“ was first literally a “double u“ (or “double v“) before the two “v“s were combined as one letter. “w“ was added to the alphabet in the 16th century a.d.  
  
for puzzle fans:  
the above list raises the obvious question: which of the remaining three letters might take the 4th place? What do you think would make most sense, based on everything we've learned so far?  
  
Cave difficulty: 4/10

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2023-03-10 18:05 dustin  
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i was already wondering if i underestimated the difficulty  because the cave demands quite some puzzling and precision. so a small correction:  
  
cave difficulty: 5/10

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2023-03-11 23:28 dustin  
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nice solution  darkstoorm ! i have a version without blasting a Δ :d

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2023-03-12 01:00 DarkStoorM  
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I actually couldn't figure out a way without blasting the Δ :D

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2023-03-12 01:02 DarkStoorM  
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Also, for some reason I assumed only the right side has the magic Δ:S :D

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2023-03-12 12:57 dustin  
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interesting! the puzzle seems to be harder than i thought! :d