Putting the 'h' back in Wanganui (fwd link)

[James Crippen]

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 5:18 PM, William J Poser <wjposer at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:
> For those with no knowledge of Maori, the difference between <wh> and <w>
> in "Wanganui" versus "Whanganui" is not a mere matter of spelling
> as the Mayor seems to think. <w> represents the same sound as in English,
> while <wh> represents a voiceless bilabial fricative, similar to English
> /f/ but made with both lips rather than the lower lip and upper teeth.

Also the same sound as in Japanese /f/ before /u/, such as the word "futon".

Can we presume that the Mayor lacks the w/wh distinction in his
English dialect? That may be why he feels it's a mere spelling
problem, since he doesn't hear the difference between "which" and
"witch". As a speaker of English retaining the w/wh distinction, the
difference in spelling would seem to be fairly important, even if I
weren't linguistically inclined.

BTW, the Hawaiian equivalent of the name would be "Hananui", with
wh->h and ng->n, through Proto-Eastern-Polynesian.

James