Gene Weingarten on the pronunciation of "what"

[Baker, John]

        He is a humor columnist.  While he is doubtless sincere in his
views on pronunciation (I believe that I, too, rhyme "what" with
"squat"), I doubt if this otherwise would have resulted in a column.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Beverly Flanigan
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 4:40 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Gene Weingarten on the pronunciation of "what"

Who is this guy?  Has he nothing better to do than to agonize over the
pronunciation of "what"?  (And how about that aspirating the 'w' and
then reducing it to a vowel--or whatever.)

At 01:27 AM 9/17/2006, you wrote:
>-----
>Washington Post, September 17, 2006; Page W56
>
>Say What?
>You can't be serious . . .
>By Gene Weingarten
>
>I AM A "WORD PERSON." My vocabulary is extensive, my command of grammar

>and syntax almost without error. I can accurately conjugate most any
>verb, including "to lie," which gets pretty complex in the pluperfect.
>I understand the difference between epistemology and hermeneutics.
>
>And so it came as something of a surprise and shock to me the other day

>when I learned that, at 54, I apparently do not know how to pronounce
>the word "what."
>-----
>
>Read the rest here:
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR20060
>91301610.html
>
>
>--Ben Zimmer
>

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