On 2023-12-14, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

(Bedeutung) wird häufig, besonders am Telefon, für »zwei« gebraucht, um Verwechselungen mit der Zahl »drei« auszuschließen

many Germans say Zwo for "two"

-------- is Zwo derived from English "two" or somewhere else?

They are cognates.

In old or conservative Indo-European languages, the small number
words are declined like adjectives. Old High German declined 2 and
3 in all cases and genders. The cardinal number 2 was still declined
for gender in Early Modern German up to the 18th century:

zween (masculine), zwo (feminine), zwei (neuter)

The neuter form eventually prevailed. The original feminine, no
longer understood as such, was revived in telephone and radio use.

Both the German and English words are descended from a common
Proto-Germanic origin. The Old English nominative forms were

twēġen (m), twā (f), tū/twā (n)

"Twain" is from "twēġen". "Two" must derive from "twā", although
the sound development looks irregular to me.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Christian Weisgerber <[email protected]> wrote:

On 2023-12-14, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:

(Bedeutung) wird häufig, besonders am Telefon, für »zwei«
gebraucht, um Verwechselungen mit der Zahl »drei« auszuschließen >>

many Germans say Zwo for "two"

-------- is Zwo derived from English "two" or somewhere else?

They are cognates.

In old or conservative Indo-European languages, the small number
words are declined like adjectives. Old High German declined 2 and
3 in all cases and genders. The cardinal number 2 was still declined
for gender in Early Modern German up to the 18th century:

zween (masculine), zwo (feminine), zwei (neuter)

The neuter form eventually prevailed. The original feminine, no
longer understood as such, was revived in telephone and radio use.

Both the German and English words are descended from a common
Proto-Germanic origin. The Old English nominative forms were

twēġen (m), twā (f), tū/twā (n)

"Twain" is from "twēġen". "Two" must derive from "twā", although
the sound development looks irregular to me.

Why twā rather than tū?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2023-12-15, Antonio Marques <[email protected]d> wrote:

twēġen (m), twā (f), tū/twā (n)

"Twain" is from "twēġen". "Two" must derive from "twā", although
the sound development looks irregular to me.

Why twā rather than tū?

* Because dictionaries say so. :-)
* twā was already replacing neuter tū in OE prose (per Wiktionary).
* It matches hwā > who.

The expected outcome of OE ā is PDE /oʊ/, e.g. OE tā > PDE toe.
Maybe the w had a raising effect on the vowel before disappearing.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)