Pronunciation of "only" as "one-ly"
I have been noticing some of my colleagues (primarily from India) pronouncing the word "only" as though it were "one-ly" or "wunly" (/ˈwʌnliː/). Is this a common pronunciation of the word?
I don't see it as a listed pronunciation in any dictionaries I consulted.
- Merriam-Webster
- Dictionary.com
- Macmillan Dictionary
- Longman Pronunciation Dictionary
- Oxford Lexico
- Collins Dictionary
- Oxford Learners Dictionary
They all give vowel-initial pronunciations—none with an initial /w/. Are there any dictionaries that countenance a "wunly" pronunciation of "only"?
Solution 1:
I'm an Indian so I feel like I'm qualified to answer this question. The pronunciation of only as one-ly is not a common one. It is not even popular in the entirety of India. But it is extremely common in South-Indians. I have a strong feeling that the Indian colleague you are referring to is a South-Indian.
If you're interested in knowing more about the South Indian English accent, you can check this out : https://youtu.be/UgWwDSxOExc
Solution 2:
Non-native speakers tend to approach from the semantic angle, assuming the etymology of only is "one"+"-ly". Not incorrect logic.
No native speaker pronounces it that way, though.
Solution 3:
J. C. Wells in his Accents of English (Beyond the British Isles, Vol.3) has the following passage about some Indian accents:
- The semivowels /j/ and /w/ are regularly omitted by some speakers when the following vowel is a mid or close one agreeing in backness with the semivowel : thus yet [ɛt], won't [o:nt],. Conversely, other speakers add a semi-vowel before an initial vowel in just those conditions: every [ˈjɛʋri], old [wo:lɖ], own [ʋon].
[ʋ] is the labiodental approximant most frequently used by Indians to realize /v ~ w/.