Now, mind you, being a New Englander I definitely have a whole lot of funky stuff going on with my vowels that doesn’t seem to jibe with most of the country. But I only realized this one until recently; it seems that most people pronounce the word “won” (i.e. the past tense of win) as homophonous with the word “one”. For me, it rhymes with “lawn”, or is homophonous to an extremely gringo-tastic pronunciation of “Juan”. Anyone else? Or is this totally idiolectic?
For me, “one” and “won” are pronounced in exactly the same way. My linguistic background is mixed, but mostly a U.S. Western (California, Oregon, Washington).
Mainer, here. “Won”=“one”. They both sound like “wun”.
Yep, the first sentence of your post pretty much is the answer to your question.
It’s heartening that at least some New Englanders are branching out and getting hip to correct vowel pronounciation.
Next lesson: “R”'s - Pronouncing them when they are actually in a word, and not when they aren’t.
What are these "R"s you speak of?
I don’t remember ever hearing anyone pronounce “won” different than “one.”
Oh, and I pronounce “lawn” like “law” but with an “n” on the end.
As a New Englander myself, my instinct is to say “of course they’re the same!” but how else would a person pronounce them? Those words are on lists of homonyms that you get in elementary school, after all.
I am wondering about this alternative pronunciation. As a foreigner (Louisiana) living in Massachusetts, I have witnessed some heinous, bizarre, gut-wrenching pronunciations since I have lived here but this is one that I am finding hard to imagine. I am also wondering how someone could not know that they are pronounced the same way by most people given the proliferation of phonographs and movie pictures with sound in this day and age.
I first learned of the “r” issue while watching “Who’s the Boss?” as a kid. Tony always called her “Angelar.”
My aunt, Linda, also had to ask the priest, prior to her wedding, not to call her “Lindar.”
Ah, yes. I used to work with a woman who had a personalized license plate that read, “Linder”, actually!
I’m a wun one.
So, how in the heck do you pronounce lawn? Lun? Granted, I’m a southerner and tend to throw in syllables all willy-nilly, but won rhymes with one and lawn rhymes with fawn, dawn, pawn…etc.
WTF are you yankees doing on the lawn?
A wee bit of my long-lost Buffalo accent comes through when I say “won”. There’s a slight aspiration – I think that’s the name of it – at the start of many words that begin with “w”. It almost sounds like “hwon”, with a very, very light “h”.
I’m not sure what he was doing, but I think he won.
I had to think about this one. I’m from New Brunswick (Canada). If I think too hard about it, I think I may sometimes say one to rhyme with lawn. Lawn sounds like yawn. One Won Ton all sound about (aboat) the same… hmm. Other times it sounds like won… wun.
But wtf do I know? I speak with an intrusive R *and *have a rhotacism impediment! Such is the horror of Maritime English.
I am from the Dallas, TX area. I pronounce them differently. “One” rhymes with “run,” while “won” rhymes with “lawn.” In other words, the vowel sound in “won” is the same as the “a” in “father” for me.
While I’ve known since I was a kid that some people pronounce “won” and “one” the same (as they are listed as homophones in several places, like someone here mentioned) I never knew it was the prevelant pronounciation!
It looks like me and the OP are the only ones who say them differently?!
-FrL-
I pronounce it to sound like the word “on,” only with a “w” at the front. I dunno if it’s the same as pronouncing it like “lawn.” I guess it’s close.
Another person checking in who’s never heard anyone pronounce “won” differently than “one.” Ever.
Midwestern, born and bred.
Brought up in the South, with frequent visits to Michigan and Indiana, I pronounce “won” like “wun” and the word “one” is more like “woon.” The “ah” pronunciation of the letter “o” is most definitely a New Englander thing. It’s ok, at least you don’t say “bayg” when you mean “bag” right? Right???
A buddy of mine pronounces “won” as if it were the “wan” in “why so pale and wan fond lover…” but his “one” is distinctly different and more of a “wun” sound.
As for me, “one” and “won” are alike. “Wan” and “Juan” are alike. And I don’t remember hearing “won” rhyme with “lawn” (which for me rhymes with dawn, fawn, pawn, and gone).