this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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And why is the W silent anyways?

top 27 comments
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 minutes ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 minutes ago

You do realize the ?si shit is your private YT token right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 minutes ago

Tuwu, what’s this?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 55 minutes ago

Oh-neh

Twah

Three is fine

Fah-oor

Feevey

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

The ⟨W⟩ is silent now, but it wasn't until 1500 or so. Back then the word was pronounced /two:/; it would almost rhyme with contemporary "toe". But then that /o:/ became /u:/ (the modern pronunciation), due to the Great Vowel Shift, and since /w/ and /u/ are really similar they fused together.

@[email protected] mentioned that in a few associated words that ⟨W⟩ letter still represents an actual /w/ phoneme, note how the following vowel is different - that blocked the "fusion".

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

Curiously in words related to 'two' the W is often pronounced!

Twin, Twixt, Between, Twelve etc

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 hours ago

Oh. My. God. I am so disappointed in myself that I never realized these words were all related before. Thank you for this gift.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

By the argument, is the w in "two" actually silent? What would it sounds like when pronounced? I think it would sound like "two" already does.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

It would sound like “twu” as in “twu wuv”

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

Lol.

OK, Impressive Clergyman!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 hours ago

It sounds exactly like "to" which means the w is silent.

It is not pronounced at all like any of the other example words given.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

I wonder if perhaps an older dialect used to pronounce the W. Lots of words have changed spelling or pronunciation over the years, so I'm curious if that might be the case with "two", too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I don't necessarily think so. If the W was pronounced, I think it would sound something more like 'tawoo' or 'teewoo'

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

Spell out that thang!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Side question?

Does twelve basically mean two eleven?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Twelve's root is in meaning "two left". And similarly eleven's origin is meaning "one left". In both cases left over from ten, the base unit of counting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Interesting. This sorta makes sense actually.

Curious though, do you have a reference link?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

The last time I was with a woman it was actually twoo, it was quite magical, I tell ya.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

Wait until you learn about words stating with a silent p, like pterodactyl and ptoilet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

ptoilet?

That's gonna phuck with my sychology!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

So, basically the owl from the tootsie roll commercials.

One....ah-ToWHO.....three!

crunch

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago