The letter ‘w’ is not considered a native letter in the Spanish alphabet. Its presence in Spanish vocabulary is primarily due to loanwords, predominantly from English, German, and other languages. Examples include “waterpolo” (water polo), “whisky” (whiskey), and “wolframio” (tungsten). These borrowed terms retain their original spelling, including the ‘w’.
The inclusion of these loanwords reflects the dynamic nature of language and its adaptation to global influences. The adoption of foreign terms, especially in technical and scientific fields, demonstrates the evolving lexicon of the Spanish language. Historically, the ‘w’ was sometimes used in older Spanish texts to represent the sound ‘u’, particularly in words of Germanic origin, but this practice is now archaic. The presence of ‘w’ now primarily serves as a marker of these borrowed terms and their origins.