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So, this is both fascinating and remarkably simple once you learn some basics about how spoken language evolves.
Let’s start here: say “woman” out loud. Now, say it again, and this time pay attention to your tongue. When you said “woman,” did you pronounce the “o” sound at the front of your mouth, higher in your mouth, and the “a” at the back, lower in your mouth?
Now try this. Say “women,” again paying close attention to where the vowel sounds come from in your mouth. First pronounce “women” as it is written- kind of like “woah men.” Do you feel how much more work that requires that pronouncing “woman” does? Now, pronounce “women” as you naturally do. Assuming you are in North America, this probably sounds a bit like “wimmin.”
Probably, this “wimmin” pronunciation feels easier and more natural. This is largely because those vowel sounds originate in roughly the same area. When a word has multiple vowel sounds and they move from front to back or top to bottom, there’s a good chance we will naturally shift towards an easier pronunciation.
I like your explanation…
Wait there are people who pronounce women with an i?
Yes? English is only my second language, but the way I hear it:
Woman: Whoman
Women: Wimin or Wimen
The latter is much shorter.
Huh, for me it’s more like wuhmen vs wohman.
The i-pronunciation is commonplace enough that some feminists who want to avoid the word “men” spell “women” as “wimmin”, i.e. the phonetic spelling.
Interesting. I associate the “wimmin” spelling with Terry Pratchett’s writing, where it’s used in the speech of lower/middle-class men, implying casual/uninformed objectification.
Am I the only one who pronounces them both with an I sound
Are the two obviously differentiated like that?
In most of the American English accents I’m familiar with, they’re pronounced “WI men” and “WŌ man.”
If I try to sound out using an I in both, the only way they sound different to me is if I move the accent to the final syllable, to mane it stand out. Something like “wi MEN” vs “wi MAN.”
If so, I’d love to hear where you’re from.
From Ohio, and they aren’t differntiated at all I just pronounce them the same (although I was mistaken about which part of the word the meme was referencing, I still pronounce both with an o/u sound at the beginning)
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Same, i think its a regional thing.
Accents matter. It sounds like “vho-men” when I say it.
And from there we get to gender neutral term homan, referring to to all you hoes.
Edit: apparently some sources incorrectly write the word as “human”
English not being my first language, I can relate to that thought 😅
When I started learning English I pronounced woman as woh-man. Good times
Lol, there was a joke about “woh-men” in the game Disco Elysium, if I’m not mistaken. But the game only tells you “the world is in danger from the mysterious Wo-men”. Maybe some players never realised it critisized sexism?
Wait people pronounce them differently. I’ve been saying it the same way.😭
Same here and I’m a native NA English speaker
I think it’s a matter of accent and Dialekt. I pronounce both the same🤷
Also correct if he’s thinking about cute dogs / cats / other animals that have more than 1 female in the group.
for the love of God please someone google what a schwa is before replying
For the love of God are you referring to the first or second vowel? People seem to think OP is talking about the second
I was just shitposting while high. but the real question isn’t “why are they pronounced differently?” but “why are they written the same?”
Woman is an ellison of wīfmann
Man is an abbreviation of wermann
“Mann” meaning “human” and wīf/wer meaning “female/male”
No one asks why “man and men” are pronounced differently, and it’s likely we’d have “wermann / wermen” pronounced “wur-man” and “wier-men” if we’d kept the distinction.
We probably just nicked the words from different languages.
Wimmen? You’re just saying it wrong.
My dad always pronounced it “getbackinthekitchen”
