A Necessary History of the Oddest Letter: W

“The letter W is a child of the fall of Rome. In the fifth century CE, the western half of the Roman Empire disintegrated into a patchwork of new kingdoms and new rulers. The reasons behind this collapse of imperial power are complex, but a large role was played by various peoples who had formerly lived outside its borders. The Romans might have looked down on these migrants as ‘barbarians’, but they also increasingly came to rely on them for military support. They were foederat i —peoples bound by treaty to fight Rome’s enemies in return for land and food. It was only with the help of the foederati (a Latin word related to English federation ) that the Romans were able to see off the threat of Attila the Hun in 451.