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USAGE: WOMYN (was: RE: [CONLANG] Optimum numberofsymbols,though mostly talking about french now

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Sunday, May 26, 2002, 23:23
Kendra wrote:
> To interject, where I live a lot of people say /wUmIn/ - /wImIn/ (please > excuse me if I made a mistake :)), which may or may not explain /wI/...
Actually, it comes from the original OE form _wifman_, in some MidEng dialects, the initial syllable went from /wi/ to /wu/. For whatever reason, the singular used the /wu/ (now /wU/) pronunciation but the plural used the /wi/ (now /wI/) pronunciation. Maybe even then the second syllable was already less distinctive. Do people where you live also not distinguish between the suffixes -man and -men? -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

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Kendra <kendra@...>