Wh-words

[Jim Rader]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> >I learned the /hw-/ forms on words like "why" and "where" as a child in
> >west-central Alabama, but did not learn it on words like "whiskey,"
> creating
> >a sort of split (although I did learn the /hw-/ form on "whale"). When
> >living for a while in the western (mountainous) part of North Carolina, I
> >noticed that the /hw-/ had been retained (or reinvented?) in "whiskey" as
> >well.
> >
> >I'm left wondering if there are general patterns of interactions between
> the
> >/hw/ vs. /w/ neutralization and the status of individual lexemes as
> >"wh-words" vs. regular nouns, etc.
> >
> >-- Bill Spruiell
>
>
> I don't think that wh- in "whiskey" is etymological since it's supposed to
> come originally from Irish uisce "water" and not from a PIE *kw- -starting
> word like why/where etc.
> [Mate Kapovic']


Yes, the <wh> in <whiskey> is not etymological, as is evident not
only from Irish <uisce> and Scottish Gaelic <uisge> but from the
earlier Scots forms <usquebae>, <usquebaugh>, etc.
Nonetheless, the _Scottish National Dictionary_ shows the symbol
for a voiceless labiovelar approximant (or however one wants to
characterize it) in the pronunciation of this word.  Also, the
northeast Scots form of the word has been recorded as <fuskie>,
with the regular realization of orthographic <wh-> as [f] in this
dialect.  I don't know of any explanation for this irregularity, but
perhaps a Scots specialist could come up with something.

Jim Rader