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cimoreneA super-cute feature of Finnish due to the fact that they don't have a "w" in their alphabet (this is true of Swedish too) and so automatic alphabetization sorts v- and w- words together, and they're pronounced the same (they pronounce them both as "v" in Finnish), but the W appeared as a spelling variant in both Swedish and Finnish before spelling standardization...
... is that as a result "W" in a Finnish word (not in a loanword: they keep the original spelling of the loanwords) is a quick shorthand for old-fashioned. (A bit like adding the extra es and saying Olde Shoppe in English.)
So any word with a V in it is fair game for spelling with a W if you want to add a pre-modern patina to it. V- names can be spelled with a W- to the same effect (like Vilma/Wilma and Venla/Wenla, both mildly trendy girls' names in the past ~10 years, with the W spellings having a sort of quaint or vintage air about them).
I run into a lot of this when browsing the Finnish equivalent of Craigsligst for old furniture. Of course, when you're selling used furniture you can just say that something's old or how old it is in the title of the listing ("Old table," "Retro chair," "Real Victorian-era cabinet"), but in Finnish you can also imply that it's pre-modern in style or actual fact simply by swapping the v for w in the name or description (or by tacking on "old", vanha in Finnish, and spelling it wanha instead).
(Relatedly, it's difficult for some native speakers of Finnish to remember which of V and W is which. They know both sounds and both letters, but a lot of them simply panic and grab one in the moment, which results in a lot of mispronunciation and a fair number of printed signs saying things like "owen-fresh".)
... is that as a result "W" in a Finnish word (not in a loanword: they keep the original spelling of the loanwords) is a quick shorthand for old-fashioned. (A bit like adding the extra es and saying Olde Shoppe in English.)
So any word with a V in it is fair game for spelling with a W if you want to add a pre-modern patina to it. V- names can be spelled with a W- to the same effect (like Vilma/Wilma and Venla/Wenla, both mildly trendy girls' names in the past ~10 years, with the W spellings having a sort of quaint or vintage air about them).
I run into a lot of this when browsing the Finnish equivalent of Craigsligst for old furniture. Of course, when you're selling used furniture you can just say that something's old or how old it is in the title of the listing ("Old table," "Retro chair," "Real Victorian-era cabinet"), but in Finnish you can also imply that it's pre-modern in style or actual fact simply by swapping the v for w in the name or description (or by tacking on "old", vanha in Finnish, and spelling it wanha instead).
(Relatedly, it's difficult for some native speakers of Finnish to remember which of V and W is which. They know both sounds and both letters, but a lot of them simply panic and grab one in the moment, which results in a lot of mispronunciation and a fair number of printed signs saying things like "owen-fresh".)
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