Was "zwo" often or ever used before radio, or was it developed as a result of radio? Or has it just always been used around crowds and loud noises? And have other numbers ever had similar morphological changes?
It has nothing to do with radio.
Zwo is the female version (from Middle and Old High German zwō, zwā) for the numeral Zwei:
Zwo Frauen
whereas zween is the male version (from Middle and Old High German zwēne)
zween Männer
Nowadays it isn't any longer in this use. At least zween is marked as archaic.
Zwo is used colloquial and when you want to differentiate acoustically from Drei.
Eins, Zwo, Drei
instead of
Eins, Zwei, Drei
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1Bzgl. anderen Zahlen: Eens, Zwee, Dree, ... aber ich glaub das ist südländischer Dialekt. Vllt kann dazu jmd anderes was sagen? – Em1 Jan 30 '12 at 8:03
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In der zwoten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts hatte zwo zwo Höhepunkte lt. Google ngram, also weit vor der Erfindung des Radios 1923 etwa startete der Rundfunk im dt. Reich lt. Wikipedia :
In the second half of the 18th century, "zwo" had its all time high, according to google ngram, and this was long before the invention of the radio around 1923 the Rundfunk im dt. Reich started, according to the German Wikipedia.
answered Jan 30 '12 at 3:07
