wh

[Rick Mc Callister]

	I've read that in the Highlands and in parts of Ireland that due to
the influence of Gaelic, /f, ph/ was perceived as a local "lenited form"
where others /wh, w, bh/ and that pronunciation passed over to English,
where it was also equated with /f, ph/, and occasionally back to Gaelic
hence English "whiskey" [from uisge beatha ?sp?] occasionally became
"fuisce".
	I'm sure someone else can explain this a lot better.

[snip>
>Yes. I say /h/ + /w/. (I am Scottish). There is also a flavour of bilabial f
>because of anticipatory lip rounding. The degree of the anticipatory lip
>rounding varies according to the register I am speaking in. In Scotland /hw/
>is still almost universal, but I am starting to hear it replaced by /w/ in
>some young people.
[snip]