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

top 37 comments
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

The W isn't silent, it has a decoy hiding it. The real W is after the o.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Oh-neh

Twah

Three is fine

Fah-oor

Feevey

[–] [email protected] 1 points 51 minutes ago

Own

Twoah

Three

Fower

Fihv

[–] [email protected] 37 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 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] 41 points 10 hours ago (5 children)

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

Twin, Twixt, Between, Twelve etc

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

Twain.

"He split Robin's arrow in twain!"

[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 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] 11 points 10 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] 22 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago

Lol.

OK, Impressive Clergyman!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 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] 8 points 10 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 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Spell out that thang!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 hours 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] 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Side question?

Does twelve basically mean two eleven?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 hours 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] 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting. This sorta makes sense actually.

Curious though, do you have a reference link?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 46 minutes ago

The U is silent

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

It is sometimes done in German. The word is Zwei, but it's somewhat common to say Zwo instead for clarity. The w is pronounced.

I guess the" tw" sound isn't used as frequently in English. It happens in between.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

ptoilet?

That's gonna phuck with my sychology!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 hours ago

So, basically the owl from the tootsie roll commercials.

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

crunch

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Okay, unless you want to taunt someone into trying to hijack your Google account or track your info, you should edit your comment link to remove the ? and everything after that.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

My dude, chill. It's 'just' an analytics tracking id.

I do usually remove them before sharing. But no, it's absolutely useless for hijacking an account.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Interesting. Do you have any more info on the SourceID token and how it can compromise an account?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago