mawen

Middle English

Noun

mawen

  1. plural of mawe

Yola

Alternative forms

Etymology

Raymond Hickey (Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms) suggests the stress of /ˈwʊmən/ "woman" and /ˈwɪmɪn/ "women" was first shifted and the stressed vowel lengthened, yielding /wuˈmaːn/ and /wɪˈmiːn/, followed by apheresis to /maːn/ and /miːn/, followed by the formation of a medial glide, yielding the singular mawen /mawən/ "woman" and plural meyen /mɪjɪn/ "women".

Noun

mawen (plural meyen)

  1. woman

References
  • J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)
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