We proposed and systematically analyzed the propagation properties of periodic segmented waveguides and nanowire waveguides where the segments and nanowires have been considered to be composed of multilayers of silicon and silica with subwavelength thickness. We demonstrated, through a comprehensive number of numerical simulations involving modal analysis, that the artificial uniaxial negative anisotropy introduced by the multilayered segments or nanowire can be used to engineer waveguides with independent polarization propagation characteristic over the entire band of optical communication frequencies.