From the Nabataean letter𐢈(l,“waw”), derived from thePhoenician letter𐤅(l,“waw”), from theEgyptian hieroglyph𓌉. See also Classical Syriacܘ(l,“waw”), Hebrewו(l,“vav”), Ancient GreekΥ(U), LatinF, LatinU, LatinV, LatinW and LatinY.
Do not eat fishand drink dairy. (Proverb about illnesses coming from bad combinations; originally the supposed increased risk of contracting leprosy, a myth stemming from fish scales and the white color of milk.)
لَا تَنْهَ عَنْ خُلُقٍوَتَأْتِيَ مِثْلَهُ
lā tanha ʕan ḵuluqinwa-taʔtiya miṯlahu
Do not say to stay away from a behavior,while you come with the likes of it. (Practice what you preach.)
Introduces a clause describing the state or circumstance of the main action, often rendered as “while” or “when.” It requires a preceding noun or pronoun and often introduces nominal clauses.
Arabic conjunctions and prepositions that have only one letter, such asوَ(wa), are written as a prefix.
The connection to the following word may howeverexceptionally be cut off by quotation marks enclosing foreign terms, emoji and similar intrusions of meta elements in the language of the internet.
Sometimes editions ofArabic texts procured inIran do not adhere to the rules, instead following the non-joining practice ofPersianو(va, o,“and”).
Arabic tends to use the conjunctionsوَ(wa) andأَو(ʔaw,“or”) between everyconjunct in a list, contrasting with the English tendency to useand andor only between the final two.
Represents the back vowel phoneme /o/, unless a smallء (hamza) was placed in the beginning of the word. In Kazakh the Hamza marks that all vowels in the following word are fronted. If و is the first letter and is representing a front vowel, it is combined with the hamza and the varientٶ is used.
Etymology 2 sense 2,فَوْعَل(fawʕal; CawCaC), may be generalized fromdenominal verbs whoseو(w) is part of the morphology: considerكَوْبَس(kawbas,“to have a nightmare”), denominal fromكَابُوس(kābūs,“nightmare”), where theو(w) regularly represents theا(ā) of the noun.
Etymology 2 sense 1,فَعْوَل(faʕwal; CaCwaC), may be metathesized from this or it may be from another source.
Extension for triliteral roots, inserted between the first and second radicals, that imparts a diminutive, iterative, or frequentative meaning:فَعْوَل(faʕwal; CaCwaC)
(lessproductive)Extension for triliteral roots, inserted between the second and third radicals, that imparts an intensive meaning[1]:فَوْعَل(fawʕal; CawCaC)
^أَنِيس خُورِي فْرَيْحَة [Anis Khuri Frayha, Anis Freiha] (August 1935), “و”, in Quadriliterals from the dialect of Ras al-Matn (Lebanon) (Ph. D. Thesis), University of Chicago, Illinois, published 1938,→OCLC, Fawʿal, page 31
V. H. Hagopian writes inOttoman-Turkish Conversation-Grammar (1907): "The common people never use it in speech; its use is proper to books and educated people."
Both pronunciations are generally interchangeable, with pronunciation 1 being more common in context and pronunciation 2 being more common in formal speech, after a pause and/or for emphasis.
In poetry, both pronunciations are used based on rhyme, but pronunciation 1 is used more often.
In the contemporary spelling of Persian, theو(va) conjunction is not joined to the following word. However, the practice of joining the conjunction to the following word, as it is in Arabic, was not uncommon in early classical texts.
The pronunciation varies by phonological context. It becomesu- before a single consonant (optional if the preceding word ends in a vowel) andwe- before a consonant cluster.
