8 ms·

Unlikely, since modern Hebrew doesn't have a letter for "w".

bonesss 6mo ago
Is it possible the foreignness makes ‘W’ appealing as it signals cool modern tech alignment or something? Like how ‘X’ attracts marketing and typographic knuckle-draggers in English, or how all our AI companies have butthole logos for reasons that only make sense if you understand the underlying companies and culture.
- darth_aardvark 6mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Israel#W https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Israel#W There's 5 of them, two of which happen to have been acquired by Google. Fair to say it's likely a coincidence. Interestingly, they all use "vav vav" as the start of their Hebrew names. "Vav" is the hebrew letter for V, so it's kind of like using VV to represent W. Maybe you're right, and it's a stylistic thing! My knowledge of Hebrew ends in Hebrew school, and that mostly focused on blessing and prayers over startup naming.
  - edanm 6mo ago
    Despite commenting on this literally five seconds ago in the sibling comment, I hadn't made the connection that if "vav" is V, then using "vav vav" is like "VV" which is like "W". I wonder if this is a real thing. In any case, I'm pretty sure it's just a coincidence, I don't think it's a stylistic thing, unless I'm missing something.
0_____0 6mo ago
Oof, you got me there!
1-more 6mo ago
It has vav which gets transliterated as v, u, o, or w. How does the average modern Hebrew speaker pronounce these company names in a sentence? Vix, Vayz, Viz? Is the "w" transliteration an example of Latin to Hebrew transliteration but not vice-versa?
- edanm 6mo ago
  It's pronounced the same as in English. Wiz, Waze, Wix. It's written with "double vav" in Hebrew, not just a single vav which would make it read as Viz.
  - 1-more 6mo ago
    tysm
  - null_deref 6mo ago
    Yes, but it’s fair to say that this is a foreign language vowel even though we do not have problem to pronounce

Is it possible the foreignness makes ‘W’ appealing as it signals cool modern tech alignment or something? Like how ‘X’ attracts marketing and typographic knuckle-draggers in English, or how all our AI companies have butthole logos for reasons that only make sense if you understand the underlying companies and culture.

darth_aardvark 6mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Israel#W https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Israel#W There's 5 of them, two of which happen to have been acquired by Google. Fair to say it's likely a coincidence. Interestingly, they all use "vav vav" as the start of their Hebrew names. "Vav" is the hebrew letter for V, so it's kind of like using VV to represent W. Maybe you're right, and it's a stylistic thing! My knowledge of Hebrew ends in Hebrew school, and that mostly focused on blessing and prayers over startup naming.
- edanm 6mo ago
  Despite commenting on this literally five seconds ago in the sibling comment, I hadn't made the connection that if "vav" is V, then using "vav vav" is like "VV" which is like "W". I wonder if this is a real thing. In any case, I'm pretty sure it's just a coincidence, I don't think it's a stylistic thing, unless I'm missing something.

0_____0 6mo ago

Oof, you got me there!

1-more 6mo ago

It has vav which gets transliterated as v, u, o, or w. How does the average modern Hebrew speaker pronounce these company names in a sentence? Vix, Vayz, Viz? Is the "w" transliteration an example of Latin to Hebrew transliteration but not vice-versa?

edanm 6mo ago
It's pronounced the same as in English. Wiz, Waze, Wix. It's written with "double vav" in Hebrew, not just a single vav which would make it read as Viz.
- 1-more 6mo ago
  tysm
- null_deref 6mo ago
  Yes, but it’s fair to say that this is a foreign language vowel even though we do not have problem to pronounce