Posted on 12/12/2020 6:53:46 PM PST by ransomnote
why does the word “one” have a “w” sound but no “W”, yet the word “two” has a “W” but no “w” sound ?
( compliments of Gallagher ? )
And upthread there’s talk about the successful use of a chlorine dioxide solution to treat the China virus:
https://andreaskalcker.com/en/coronavirus/covid-treatment.html
A chlorine dioxide solution is a form of bleach. I wonder if this research is what Trump was looking at when he talked about injecting “bleach” into the body for COVID:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177
So very sorry for the loss of your dear friend.
RE: freep
Yeah :) May be related to freep.com which is the site for Detroit Free Press.
Thank you. I didn’t know that,
“why does the word “one” have a “w” sound but no “W”, yet the word “two” has a “W” but no “w” sound ?”
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Same reason that you park in the “Driveway” and drive on the “Parkway”
This is my favorite subject! Why are words pronounced as they are? Remember I have no authority really for any of this.
There is a limitation in English spelling. We don’t have a way to indicate that two letters are simultaneous. The two letters -n and -e are simultaneous. Think -nnnnn. The -n means to put the tongue on the roof of your mouth and the vowel means to phonate. Long -o since the great vowel shift is now a diphthong, an -uh sound moving to an -ooo sound. If you say all three sounds quickly -uh -oo -nnnn you will feel the -w as your lips move. As you speak in normal conversation the individual letters do not appear and people hear the same sound as the pronunciation of the word “won”.
“Two” is a little harder to see. The double you sound is actually two -u sounds a long -oo and a short -uh one after another. I don’t know which is first. Either way as you move your lips through those two sounds and then to the next vowel you will feel the -w sound in your lips. “Twain” got chopped to “twa” and now the -oo sound from the double -u dominates. Say this rapidly as if you had a dutch NY accent: tuh -oo -ah eggs. As the two elides into the eh of eggs you will hear the -w disappear and the -oo takes over. In scottish they still say twa.
You might want to read a reddit/etymology about this:
There is a lot of guessing and don’t bother if you need authoritative answers but I like it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/7hjx13/why_do_we_pronounce_the_w_in_twice_but_not_two/
When I was in college (Electronics)...I had a long commute. When I had an early class then a late class, I would finish all homework assignments then hang out in the library. The Oxford English Dictionary was among my favorites.
Still haven’t figgered out “i before e except after c, unless it sounds like ‘a’ as in neighbor and weigh”...weird ain’t it?
LOL! Me too I love words. I can go on and on. But it’s your fault, you got me started.
“Weird” refers to the Norse god whose characteristics were strange occultic ...well weirdness. Usually referred to as fate, his power was greater than all the other gods. Spelled “Wyrd” if you wanna look him up.
The old pronunciation was like “weigh”, Weigh-errd. As you say it rapidly in normal conversation, you will hear your tongue make the -y sound in the middle of the word which recalls the -y in the original spelling. Sometimes the spelling gets altered to try to retain the old pronunciation, and sometimes our idea of the spelling changes the pronunciation.
The old god of fate was named “weird” but spelled “Wyrd.”
When we see that spelling we want to say “word” but that is not it. The more a word is used by reglar dummies like us, it will go through many sometimes senseless changes. Special subject words that dumdums don’t ever use will retain their old forms. This is why we still use Medieval Latin words in law, science/medicine, theology, and other smart people subjects. The smart folks just keep using the old words because they don’t need to change them.
That old -i before -e rule is also related to Latin. There was a pronunciation shift in Latin consonants as Latin was becoming Italian and other Romance languages. The letter c used to sound like -k in all words. Now it is like an -s or a -ch before -ih and -ee vowels.
The -igh in weigh used to sound as it does in germanic languages. We say “right” and they say “rishtig”. Back when we were saying the -igh sound, it would impact the sound of the attached vowel. The long -i sound changed from a german -ih to an -oy sound in the 1500’s. “Risht” but with more of a german g in there than the -sh became “roysght”. Then the -igh sound not being voiced was simply unheard and dropped. When your tongue is high in your mouth for a short -i, then the -gh could be heard. But when the tongue is low for the diphthing long -i, -ah-eee then it is hard to put the -gh in the word.
I’m Scotch-Irish and still pronounce the -h in the word “where”. I still say the -w in the word “write”. I say “cot” and “caught” completely differently. (Forgive me I do love this subject.)
Yup...The Germanic tongue is quite different from the Nordic even though it is sometimes used as a bridge. Norse -> German -> Romantic -> Olde English -> New English. Doesn’t always work out well.
Similarly, Oriental -> Sanskrit -> Greek -> Latin -> Olde English -> New English
You can insert the various middle East Languages (most notably, Arabic) between Sanskrit and Greek.
While the above is a simplification, it points toward some problems.
Of note, the library at Alexandria generally used Greek as a “common” language. (I’ve heard that Cleopatra spoke fluent Egyptian, Arabic, and Greek). The real problem was translating various terms phonetically into written transcripts (most people were illiterate).
What fun. Welcome to festivus
GW vid to watch
Mark to watch
ping
Save for later
Ivermectin - Mark
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