By all accounts, “one” should rhyme with “stone”, but bear in mind that we also have “done” which is pretty close, as well as “gone” which is pretty out-there by comparison. (This suggests the compromise pronunciation of “scone” should be “scun”, but on the other hand…)
There’s also that in some accents / dialects, the word “own” fills that particular pronunciation niche, necessitating an alternative pronunciation for the number.
The theory is that a non-standard regional pronunciation is the, uh, one that caught on everywhere else.
Fun fact about “two”: It’s the “w” making the vowel sound, and the “o” is silent (compare Latin “duo”). Even more strangely, it’s “w” that makes the vowel sound in “who” as well! It was originally spelled “hwo” until all “hw” words were forced to conform to all the other modifiers where the h goes second. It’s also hwy / why the h sounds out first in old-fashioned pronunciations of words like whip / hwip.
I was just thinking this, but with the word “one”. And also “two”
By all accounts, “one” should rhyme with “stone”, but bear in mind that we also have “done” which is pretty close, as well as “gone” which is pretty out-there by comparison. (This suggests the compromise pronunciation of “scone” should be “scun”, but on the other hand…)
There’s also that in some accents / dialects, the word “own” fills that particular pronunciation niche, necessitating an alternative pronunciation for the number.
The theory is that a non-standard regional pronunciation is the, uh, one that caught on everywhere else.
Fun fact about “two”: It’s the “w” making the vowel sound, and the “o” is silent (compare Latin “duo”). Even more strangely, it’s “w” that makes the vowel sound in “who” as well! It was originally spelled “hwo” until all “hw” words were forced to conform to all the other modifiers where the h goes second. It’s also hwy / why the h sounds out first in old-fashioned pronunciations of words like whip / hwip.