• crossal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      For the love of God are you referring to the first or second vowel? People seem to think OP is talking about the second

      • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        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.