LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.06 (02) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 06 February 2006 * Volume 02
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.04 (04) [E]

Thank you, Ian, interesting. So <wh> is called "voiceless w"...
Does that mean that it is the voiceless counterpart of general w,
which would be voiced then?
I always thought that it was pronounced, if at all, as a kind of
strong <h> followed by <w>.
If I try to pronounce <w> voiceless, it sounds more or less like fw:
fwe fwere fwondering fwich fway fwe fwere fwandering fwen fwe fwere
fwood fwalking
Ingmar

>From: Ian Pollock <ispollock at shaw.ca>
>Dear Ingmar;
>I don't have the knowledge to tell you about all of Anglophonie, but I
>can give you a pretty good picture of Canada. In Canada, voiceless w
>(wh) has almost died a death. Some members of the older generation
>still distinguish it. Schoolteachers often do as well, so everyone
>hears it at school at least and *can* pronounce it if they want.
>However, chances are that if you hear a Canadian-born person below 60
>using it, they're putting on airs. I have heard some people doing this
>and hypercorrecting - a lady once asked me for a cold glass of "whater"
>when I worked in the local ice-cream parlour as a kid.
>I don't know what the situation is in the states, but my impression is
>that it's critically endangered there as well. Too bad, it's rather an
>exotic sound, typologically.
>All the best!
>-Ian Pollock
>From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
>> I am curious if and how native English speakers still distinguish
>> <w> and <wh> in their pronunciation.  For me and other Dutchophones
>> they usually sound the same, and I pronounce both as <w>, so I
>> wouldn't tell e.g. whether and weather from each other.  But maybe
>> some regional pronos or sociolect still have <wh> ('hw')?

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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.05 (01) [E]

Ingmar wrote: "But maybe some regional pronos or sociolect still have
('hw')?"
Hi Ingmar:
Yes, I make the distinction between weather and whether with the (hw) sound.
I come from Texas and my parents come from Tennessee.  There are still some
parts of the South (USA that is) that make the distinction.  However, I
believe that is passing away with younger generations.  For example, my two
daughters don't make the distinction, and they both were born and raised in
Texas.
Perhaps it is a Scots things, because so much of the Southern US was
populated by Scots, and Scots-Irish.
Mark Brooks

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From: Kevin and Cheryl Caldwell <kevin.caldwell1963 at verizon.net>
Subject: LL-L "Phonology" 2006.03.05 (01) [E]

> From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: LL-L "Literature" 2006.03.04 (01) [E]
>
>   From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder
>   Subject: LL-L "Literature" 2006.03.03 (07) [E]
>
>   ...I am curious if and how native English speakers still distinguish
>   and in their pronunciation.
>   For me and other Dutchophones they usually sound the same, and I
> pronounce
>   both as , so I wouldn't tell e.g. whether and weather from each other.
>   But maybe some regional pronos or sociolect still have ('hw')?
>
>   Wondering which,
>   Ingmar
>
> From Paul Finlow-Bates
>
> suspect less so than in the past.  That also seems to be a feature of many
> (but not all) varieties of North American English, and most Irish people I
> know, northern or southern.

I usually differentiate between 'w' and 'wh', unless I get lazy. It's how I 
learned it from my parents and in 2nd and 3rd grades in Tennessee, where the 
school I attended used a phonics program to teach reading (this was in the 
early 1970s). But most Americans I know pronounce them the same.

Kevin Caldwell 

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