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

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago (19 children)

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

Twin, Twixt, Between, Twelve etc

[–] boydster 32 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 1 week ago

A few less-obvious associations, just for fun:

  • Just like "the house" /s/ is "to house" /z/, "the glass" /s/ is "to glaze" /z/
  • Tiw's Day, Wotan's Day, Thor's Day, Frigg's Day. Note: Tiw, Wotan and Frigg are the native names for Norse Tyr, Odin and Freyja.
  • "Flee", "fly", "flow" are all related.
  • The "mus" in "muscle" is a borrowed cognate to native "mouse".
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