Gene Weingarten on the pronunciation of "what"

Beverly Flanigan flanigan at OHIO.EDU
Sun Sep 17 20:40:26 UTC 2006


Who is this guy?  Has he nothing better to do than to agonize over the
pronunciation of "what"?  (And how about that aspirating the 'w' and then
reducing it to a vowel--or whatever.)

At 01:27 AM 9/17/2006, you wrote:
>-----
>Washington Post, September 17, 2006; Page W56
>
>Say What?
>You can't be serious . . .
>By Gene Weingarten
>
>I AM A "WORD PERSON." My vocabulary is extensive, my command of
>grammar and syntax almost without error. I can accurately conjugate
>most any verb, including "to lie," which gets pretty complex in the
>pluperfect. I understand the difference between epistemology and
>hermeneutics.
>
>And so it came as something of a surprise and shock to me the other
>day when I learned that, at 54, I apparently do not know how to
>pronounce the word "what."
>-----
>
>Read the rest here:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR2006091301610.html
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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