Why

[Dennis R. Preston]

arnold,

Instrospection throughout the entire range shows I have /worf/ for
both "wharf" (for boats) and "Whorf" (for Benjamin Lee).

My old Webtser's New World does indeed show "wharf" with /hw/. Hwat a surprise!

dInIs



>dInIs, about interrogative WHY (voiceless initial) vs. exclamatory WHY
>(voiced initial):
>  >widepread among the few surviving wh/w distinguishers. I have
>  >the same rule.
>
>this comes up every few years.  i have the same distinction, and
>have observed it in many other wh/w distinguishers.
>
>i believe that, for me, WHOA and exclamatory WHY are the only
>words spelled with initial <wh> that have only voiced initials.
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
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