Talk:cervisia

In some Latin words, the traditional mid-sentence Vs pronounced like U become a U, however in this word you keep it cervisia. Why not Ceruisia?

-thanks (Latin student)

Because in Latin, a u before or between vowels was typically pronounced like the consonant /w/, and that's true for this word. In Classical Latin, there was only the form v, but by Medieval Latin, scribes used differentiated letters u and v in Latin texts, in recognition of those two distinct sounds. It has since been conventional in many texts to use u for the vowel sound /u/ and v for the consonant sound /w/, but some editors choose to use u in both situations or v in both situations. Wiktionary follows the convention of distinguishing them. --EncycloPetey 23:16, 9 April 2010 (UTC)