endangered phonemes

[Natalie Maynor]

Peter Richardson wrote:

> > But there's question I've always wanted to ask: for me, and for all
> > other which/witch-ers I've ever asked, the interrogative "why" and the
> > interjection "why" are a minimal pair  -- i.e. we have /hway/ in "Why
> > did you do it?", but /way/ in "Why, that's impossible!"
>
> woops. Here's an exception. I say /hway/ for both. I suspect others do as
> well, but maybe only those born in 1943 or before.

Me too -- both are [hw].
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)
     b. March 16, 1943