Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Saturday 29 October 2005 19:43, Karl Randolph wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
>
> > I would be really interested in hearing you pronouncing flrt wrs etc.
> > without a schewa. It's phonetically impossible.
>
> Depends on how you pronounce the "r". It is possible with
> the American pronunciation.
>
> > I have lots of American friends and I have never heard your claimed
> > pronunciation of women. Women is pronounced 'wimin' not 'wumin'.
>
> No, you got it wrong! It's pronounced "women" with the "o"
> like the "oul" in could, would or should, not "i", and the "e"
> as in men, again not a "i". This is from the MidWest
> pronunciation, which is considered the best American
> pronunciation. Of course you could be running into a
> bunch of dialectal mispronunciations, like those guys from
> Noo Yauk or Baastin.    ....    ;-)

Excuse me, but who told you that midwest is considered the "best"?  And my 
dad 
was from the midwest and he pronounced it with the "i" sound.  I'm from 
California but have lived in Montana, Indiana, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and 
now Idaho, and I have never heard the plural pronounced as you describe it in 
any of those places.  I have known people from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, 
Kentucky, Washington, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, and who knows where else. 
 
As far as I know, you are the ONLY person who has ever suggested the above 
pronunciation.  I even saw a Dennis the Menace comic once in which it was 
phonetically spelled "wimmin."  Only the singular, "woman," has the "u" 
vowel.  By your description, there would be no auditory difference between 
the singular and the plural, which is something I have never heard in all my 
travels (I have spent time in all but 4 of our 50 states).  So either you're 
talking about the singular, or you really talk funny ;-)

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Maybe I'll trade it for a new hat."