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This vocalic w generally represented /uː/, [3] [4] as in wss ("use"). [5] However at that time the form w was still sometimes used to represent a digraph uu (see W), not as a separate letter. In modern Welsh, "W" is simply a single letter which often represents a vowel sound. Thus words borrowed from Welsh may use w this way, such as:
Still other words, such as roof, hoof, and root, are variable, with some speakers preferring /uː/ and others preferring /ʊ/ in such words, such as in Texan English. For some speakers in Northern England, words ending in -ook that have undergone shortening to /ʊ/ elsewhere, such as book and cook, still have the long /uː/ vowel.
In many word games, notably in Scrabble, a player must build a word using a certain set of letters. If a player is obliged to use a q, but does not have a u, it may be possible to play words from this list. Not all words in this list are acceptable in Scrabble tournament games.
Certain words, like piñata, jalapeño and quinceañera, are usually kept intact. In many instances the ñ is replaced with the plain letter n. In words of German origin (e.g. doppelgänger), the letters with umlauts ä, ö, ü may be written ae, oe, ue. [13] This could be seen in many newspapers during World War II, which printed Fuehrer for ...
Syllables and words ending in -aig, -eig, -oig, -uig, -aix, -eix, -oix, -uix; Letter sequences: tx (also common in Basque, however) and tg; Letter y is only used in the combination ny and loanwords; Letters k and w are rare and only used in loanwords (e.g. walkman) Word endings: -o, -a, -es, -ció, -tat, -ment
So the most frequent words have just one letter (Teach Yourself Dutton Speedwords, 1951, page 5). Structure the vocabulary around high frequency words. A 1,000 word vocabulary handles 85% of daily conversation while a 3,000 word vocabulary handles 98% of daily conversation so Speedwords only needs a simple rule for 2% of its vocabulary.
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The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they represent vowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as "onion" and "quail" respectively. The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in "young") and sometimes a vowel (as in "myth").