Query: women > wimming

[Wilson Gray]

Most people pronounce "women" as though it's spelled "wimmin." My
mother pronounces "women" as though it's spelled "wimmun," with a
*very* clear schwa in the final syllable. She forms the plural of
"woman" by raising and fronting the [^] of the first syllable to [I]
while leaving the schwa of the final syllable unmodified. I find it
very annoying. But, what can you do, if it's your own mom?

-Wilson Gray

On Jan 21, 2005, at 5:55 PM, Peter A. McGraw wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Peter A. McGraw" <pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Query: women > wimming
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> --On Friday, January 21, 2005 5:18 PM -0500 Wilson Gray
> <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>
>> FWIW, my
>> mother is unique in my experience in pronouncing "women" as [wI m at n].
>
> ???  Am I being dense?  Aside from "wimming," I can't think of any
> other
> way it could be pronounced.  Or do you mean she divides the syllables
> before the [m] instead of after?  Or inserts a pause?  Or have I been
> miss-pronouncing women all these years?
>
> *****************************************************************
> Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
> ******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************
>