Why spider"man" 's pronunciation is different than police"man" ???

Question

The different pronunciation of man~~

Answer 1

Actually, English compounds ending with "man" TYPICALLY behave as "policeman" does. The "a" is UN-accented, and so becomes (like many an unaccented vowel) a barely pronounced sound,something like "uh", which grammarians call a "schwa" sound. (It's that upside-down backwards e you find in many dictionaries.)

"Spiderman", on the other hand, is a specially constructed word, a name really, specifically created to emphasize that he is in a sense both spider and man. Thus the "man" is given its own accent, and the vowel sounds the same as it ordinarily does when the word "man" is used independently.

There are SOME other compounds of this sort that do the same thing, and some that may be pronounced EITHER way. The reasons are, I think, related to the individuals words. Sometimes it may have to do with what is EASIER to pronounce, the uniqueness of the term...being applied, rather like "spiderman", to an individual not a 'class' ("sandman", perhaps?), or for other reasons of specially emphasizing that this person is really a MAN/human, which in NOT such a big point in many -man words (try "caveman"!)

Note that in SOME cases, this varies by dialect -- thus in some dialects of English people add an accent to the end of "policeman", pronouncing it, as we do spiderman, as almost two distinct words (But it is NOT accented in "standard" dialects", such as "Standard American English" and "Received Pronunciation")

You might test words in the following list of 'words ending with -man' to see which does which. (Ignore those ending with "woman", since that changes everything.)
http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/man

Answer 2

It seems the same to me, perhaps spider man is an American created word and that makes the difference but I don't see or hear it.

Answer 3

relies upon. :) EE-vah -- i could assume his pronunciation for use as a nickname for Evangeline. consistent with possibility it is because of the fact I say the call [ee-VAN-juh-leen] fairly of [ah-VAN-juh-leen]. additionally, if the call Eva is status on it is very own, I pronounce it this way. AY-vah -- To me, this call is spelled Ava 0.5 of the time. notwithstanding, I stay in Phoenix the place there's a heavy Mexican effect. i think of 50% of the individuals right here could pronounce Eva this way. EV-ah -- i certainly relatively like the nickname Eve reported [EVV] like it may rhyme with Neve Campbell's first call. i does not use the soft "e" sound for Eva, however, till it became a nickname for Evelyn consistent with possibility. i does not ever say that Eva is reported [EE-fah], notwithstanding that should variety with cultural transformations in language. while you're asking me which between the above pronunciations is prettiest, i think of [AY-vah] is thru far the main angelic and woman.

Answer 4

Maybe it's got something to do in ending in a vowel? The 'e' at the end of police makes it flow so that a new emphasis isn't required to pronounce the 'man'?

Accent too... do you say police'mn'?

Answer 5

Probably because policeman is a compound word, but Spider-Man, when written properly (like this) is two hyphenated words.

Answer 6

eh??? sitting here saying spiderman and policeman to myself...see what you have reduced me to??...maybe its an dialect thing or local accent thing cos the man sounds the same in both words to me...sorry....no hang on a minute...spider mAn and police mUn....very subtle but yeah think you are right.

Answer 7

Spider Man is two words, policeman is only one. Besides it would sound funny.

Answer 8

people slang words alot, so when they make the word 'policeman' sound like "policemin", they're technically making it sound like the word "policemen" as in plural. if there were many spiderman(s), it would make the 'man' sound just like 'policemen'. spidermen, policemen. spiderman, policeman. (people jst need 2say the 'a' correctly.)

does that make sense...?..i think i just confused myself lol

Answer 9

depends on the person's slang. or what area they are from, IE American's would say it probably 5 different ways.

Answer 10

One wears a spandex suit and looks slightly homosexual, and the other can walk up walls?

Maybe it's your accent? I hate a debate with a friend of mine about this too....