The other day when I was looking at my grand daughter reading her English text book,I was suddenly asked by her why five interrogative pronouns - who, what, where, when, what begin with the letter, W. Is it mere coincidence? To my embarrassment, I’ve never fancied it. I checked the origin of five W in google to no avail. Can somebody teach her instead of me.
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1How did this happen? – Hot Licks Sep 24 '21 at 01:51
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3This question asks about Latin, but covers the etymology of these words in English. Does this answer your question? Why do Wh question words in English so consistently map to Q words in Latin? – Stuart F Sep 24 '21 at 10:05
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I reproduce below the comment I made in the duplicate question linked above: All the English wh- pronouns come from the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷo-, the stem for interrogative pronouns. Latin retains the original labiovelar stop (spelled with QU), while English and other Germanic languages have had it changed by the processes called "Grimm's Law" into a labiovelar fricative /hw/, pronounced simply as /w/ by many speakers. – John Lawler Sep 24 '21 at 16:35