Chapter V

V has a sound of near affinity to that of f, as vain, vanity.

From f in the Islandick alphabet, v is only distinguished by a
diacritical point.

W.

Of w, which in diphthongs is often an undoubted vowel, some grammarians have doubted whether it ever be a consonant; and not rather as it is called a double u, or ou, as water may be resolved into ouater; but letters of the same sound are always reckoned consonants in other alphabets: and it may be observed, that w follows a vowel without any hiatus or difficulty of utterance, as frosty winter.

Wh has a sound accounted peculiar to the English, which the Saxons better expressed by hw, as, what, whence, whiting; in whore only, and sometimes in wholesome, wh is sounded like a simple h.