UZBECK TARTARY. See TARTARY.
W or w, is the 21st letter of our alphabet; and is, composed, as its name implies, of two v's. It was not in use among the Hebrews, Greeks, or Romans; but chiefly peculiar to the northern nations, the Teutones, Saxons, Britons, &c. But still it is not used by the French, Italians, Spaniards, or Portuguese, except in proper names and other terms borrowed from languages in which it is originally used, and even then it is founded like the single v. This letter is of an ambiguous nature; being a consonant at the beginning of words, and a vowel at the end. It may stand before all the vowels except u; as waters, wedge, winter, wonder; it may also follow the vowels a, e, o, and unite with them into a kind of double vowel, or diphthong; as in shaw, sew, cow, &c. It also goes before r, and
follows s and th; as in wrath, swear, thwart: it goes before h also, though in reality it is founded after it; as in when, what, &c. In some words it is obscure, as in shadow, widow, &c.