w W, w, the 23d letter of the English alphabet. It takes its form and its name from the union of two V's the character V having formerly the name and force of U. The name "double u" is not, how- ever, a very suitable one, being given to the letter from its form of composition, and not from its sound. In the Anglo- Saxon alphabet W had a distinctive character of its own, the modern letter being adopted in the 13th century. W represents two sounds: (1) The distinc- tive sound properly belonging to it, being that which it has at the beginning of a syllable, and when followed by a vowel, as in was, will, woe, forward, housework, etc.; (2) at the end of syllables, in which position it is always preceded by a vowel, it has either no force at all (or at most only serves to lengthen the vowel), as in law, paw, grow, lawful, etc.; or it forms the second element in a diphthong, as in few, new, now, vow, etc., being in such cases really a vowel, and equivalent to the u in bough, neutral, etc. It is formed by opening the mouth with a close, circular configuration of the lips, the organs having exactly the same posi- tion as they have in pronouncing the oo in foot. W is hence often spoken of as a vowel; but it is not so, as may be seen by comparing woo, wood, and wo- man, in which w is not equivalent to oo. WAAG (vag), a large river of Hun- gary, rising in the Carpathian Moun- tains, and after a course of 200 miles, joining the Danube at Komorn. WAAL, THE, a branch of the Rhine, the main waterway of the larger Rhine (/•essels, which above Arnhem branches off into the province of Gelderland, and unites near Workum with the Maas. WABASH, a city and county-seat of Wabash co., Ind. ; on the Wabash river, and on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis and the Wabash rail- roads; 75 miles N. E. of Indianapolis. It is the trade and shipping center of a rich agricultural region. Here are a court house, a street railroad and electric light plants, a hospital, National and other banks, and several daily and week- ly newspapers. The city has manu- factories of carriages, shoes, flour, hats, paper, woolen goods, etc. Pop. (1910) 8,687; (1920) 9,872. WABASH, a river of the United States, which rises in the N. W. of Ohio, winds across Indiana, forms the bound- ary between Indiana and Illinois, and falls into the Ohio, of which it is the largest N. tributary, after a course of 550 miles. It is navigable for steamboats to Lafayette. WABASH COLLEGE, an educational non-sectarian institution in Crawfords- ville, Ind.; founded in 1832; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and in- structors, 25; students 219; president, G. L. Mackintosh, LL. D. WAGE, ROBERT, a Norman-French trouvere, calling himself simply Master Wace; born in the island of Jersey about 1120. His celebrated works are two long romances, the "Roman de Brut" (Brutus), and the "Roman de Rou" (Rollo), both in Norman-French. The "Roman de Brut" is in octosyllabic couplets, is presumably founded on Geof- frey of Monmouth's chronicle, and is of commanding literary importance as the source, or supposed source, from which many subsequent poets drew their Merlin and King Arthur tales. The "Roman de Rou," mostly octosyllabic also, is a chronicle of the Norman dukes. He died about 1180. WACO, a city and county-seat of McLennan co., Tex.; at the confluence of the Bosque and Brazos rivers, and on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe, and other railroads; 95 miles N. E. of Austin. It contains State and Federal court houses, Baylor University (Bapt.) ; the Academy of the Sacred Heart (R. C), the Paul 261
