herb, /hw/, and shedule

[Lynne Murphy]

Thanks for all the info on 'schedule'.  For those wonderign about the
prevalence of the /sk-/ pronunciation in the UK, I note that Fowler's (3rd
ed., 1996) says that the /sk-/ pronunciation is heard more and more in
Britain, esp. among young people.

My next question:  does anyone/any region in the US use the Brit
pronunciation of 'herb' (with the /h/), and which pronunciation is
prevalent in Canada?

And as long as I'm throwing out BrE/AmE pronunciation issues, I'll note
that my students were discussing my fellow American colleague's
pronunciation before class the other day, and asked me why he pronounces
words like 'where' with a /hw/.  This might signal that the downfall of
/hw/ is progressing faster in the UK than the US?  Fowler's notes that the
Concise Oxford of 1995 left out all the /hw/ pronunciations, while AHD4 and
M-W10 still put /hw/ pronunciations first--even for words like 'whammy'
which I've never heard as /hwami/.




M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320