Tuesday, April 15, 2008

When is the 'W' silent?

In the word 'Two'. Why is it there? Germanic roots.

7 comments:

The Daily Squink said...

A little background would be helpful – where did you come across this knowledge? Is that the ONLY word where the W is silent?

Beach said...

We were out walking and we were counting shoes that Finn had kicked off (one...two). At the same time I was thinking about the Netherlands, perhaps because of the tulips that are nearing blossom around Cincinnati. I then thought of how to count in Dutch and how they actually say 't-woh'. So I said 't-woh'.

I then asked Sarah about the silent w. We couldn't come up with any other silent w words.

My meaningless meandering thoughts became a quick post.

The Daily Squink said...

And your explanation that is longer than the post itself, heh.

I guess there are a few more silent w's. I had to cheat, because I couldn't think of them myself:

http://evaeaston.com/pr/sl-pat-w.html

Although I think I have heard people pronounce the w in sword before.

Beach said...

i would laugh at someone who said "toard". i think that i say "tward".

Jackson said...

Isn't it strange how, in the stream of conciousness, some items rise to "blogpost" status? I'm assuming Finn kicking off his shoes is just one in a myriad of things he does in even a ten minute timeframe. Why then, did this "W" item make it to print? Hmmm, a qWestion I cannot answer either...

Anonymous said...

Enough of this esoteric crap. We want more pictures of Finn!!!!

Gpa Beach.

PS. The w is not only silent, it became an f by the time I arrived.

Anonymous said...

The only three I can think of are: sword, two, and answer.