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Maria Cypher wrote:
Can you weigh in on whether the “h” in -wh- words (e.g., whether, white, overwhelmed) should be pronounced? This seems to be a regional thing, but I say yes, yes, yes! (And then my friends and relatives mock me.)
I’m with you, Maria. At least I am on many words that begin with the letter combination wh.
Many of our wh words descend from Old English originals that began with the spelling hw:
hwa (who)
hwaem (whom)
hwael (whale)
hwaether (whether)
hwit (white)
The sound [hw] is an aspirate, rather like the sound one makes when blowing out a candle. It’s a sound I teach for the phonogram wh. Even if one speaks a dialect that pronounces the spellng wh [hw] as [w] in words like white and whet, learning the wh as a phonogram distinct from the letter w and applying it as a “spelling pronunciation” is useful in learning to spell correctly. Not knowing the difference can result in writing that startles or misleads:
By 1600, the British and Dutch had broken the Spanish and Portuguese naval hegemony, freeing up the spice trade. But trade in spices did not wet the North American palate for hot chili peppers.–YaleGlobalOnline
WordNavigator.com lists 941 English words that being with the wh spelling. Many of them are different forms of the same word, for example whistle and whistling. Many are words of interest only to Scrabble players. Eliminating the Scrabble words, multiple forms of the same word, and obsolete spellings, I narrowed the list to 70 or fewer.
Of this short list, some are words in which the wh has mutated to an “h” sound (delabialization of /hw/), ex. who, whom, and whore. (I can remember the first time I came across that third word–I was in high school–and went around trying to pronounce it with a [hw]. Talk about being laughed at…)
Words like white, whet, and whale belong to what’s called the “wine/whine merger.” For most English speakers, the wh in these words is pronounced as a plain w [w]. Maria and I are in the minority. And I’d guess that we don’t pronounce the same wh words alike.
In reviewing my short list of wh words, I find that I’m not at all consistent. For example, I would pronounce whizz with the [hw] in this sentence…
The arrow whizzed through the air.
…but I’d probably pronounce it [w] in this sentence:
Charlie stepped behind the hedge to take a whizz.
The only reason I can think of is that I heard the second use of the word in conversation before seeing it written.
Then there’s whiz as in “whiz kid.” That, for me, would probably take a [w] sound.
Here are some words that I know I pronounce with the breathy [hw] sound…
whale
whinny
whine
while
whether
whisper
whistle
whiskers
…but I think I may pronounce these words with a plain w sound:
whisky
whey
whittle
white
Ah, the mystery of language!
Here’s a link to all you could ever want to know about The Phonological History of wh.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lich59xsjik Family Guy’s take on the issue. Skip ahead to 0:55 for the good stuff.
Hmmm…I think that pronunciation aside, I would spell it “wiz” kid, with “wiz” being short for “wizard.” Although in the case of someone going off in the woods (or diapers) to do his bizness, then I would call it “whizz” kid.
The Northern pronunciation of a word like like ‘whale’, with an aspiration at the beginning of the word that varies from licht palatal to gruff alveolar, sits geographically between (South English) ‘w{h}ale’ and (Norwegian) ‘kval’. Similarly in ‘where’ vs ‘kvar, kor’.
The lighter or zero aspiration to the South and the palato-alveolar stop-consonant to the North are also found in words like ‘church’ vs ‘kirke’ and even in mixed words like ’screech’ and ’shriek’, which have apparently arisen on the linguistic boundary between the anglo-Saxon and Norse spheres of influence.
In your quotation, “did not wet” caught my attention. I would have used “whet” as in putting an edge on a knife with a whet stone. Wetting something down usually washes off stuff, in my thinking, so “wet the ..” would be more like douse or diminish.
And now I am going to spend the day wondering, “Do I use the ‘hw’ or ‘w’ sound for whistle, and for while? Next thing I will start humming the Disney polka, “Its a small, small world.”
*shudder*
Thanks, I think.
I go with the “hw” sound for all of the last 12 examples, but understand confusion caused by a little ditty about a “wooden whistle”.
I can remember having a problem with the word “character,” thinking it was two different words, one written, pronounced with “ch” as in “church,” and the other spoken, with unknown spelling.
I agree with both of you that this is most likely a regional phenomenon, and one with connections to whatever the speaker was taught early in the process of learning to read. I distinctly remember being taught to place my hand in front of my mouth to feel the expulsion of breath to pronounce [wh] as opposed to [w]. I still pronounce many of the “wh” words with a very slight expulsion of breath–partly by force of habit and precision, and partly because I’ve always been conscious of the connection between spelling and pronunciation.
My country, English is secondary language. Those days when I was schooling, my teacher has stress on “pronouncation” especially on difficult word. Until now I am still learning “pronouncation”.
It must be a British thing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone in anywhere I’ve been in the US (Midwest, Northwest, New England, East coast, West coast, Florida, Georgia, Texas…) pronounce “the breathy hw” sound. Whale, whinny, whine, while, whether (and weather), whisper, whistle, whiskers, whiskey, whey, whittle, and white, all have the same /w/ sound.
And in some parts of Scotland, “wh” is pronounced “f”…!
Help me. I am a teacher but I need to learn English ( Pronouciation) Thanks
Don’t start me on the common error ‘pronOUnciation’ for ‘pronunciation’! As to ‘wh-’, I as English am used to noticing Americans and Scots pronouncing the aspirate, but among Englanders you would be though t rather posh these days to make a point of doing so. My parents’ generation, born in the twenties, were the last to do so as a general rule, and I suspect that even then many here did not. Add to which the more general question of dropping the aspirate altogether, which is an increasing feature of much casual spoken English here in England. Anyone noticed it elsewhere?