Whilst

[Laurence Horn]

At 8:16 AM -0700 7/17/10, David Wake wrote:
>Listen to the way this guy from Alabama says "why".
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQdTgkY321s
>

Basically [hwa:].  I've read somewhere that speakers who pronounce
"why" with initial [hw]- in ordinary questions (and relative clauses)
don't do so for the corresponding discourse particle ("Why, yes!",
"Why of course not!").  No idea if it's true for a substantial group
of speakers, since I'm a conflater (except in second-instance
contexts, e.g. to indicate that I meant "whether", not "weather").

LH

>On Jul 16, 2010, at 20:20, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>Subject:      Re: Whilst
>>---
>>---
>>---
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>I looked up "whilst" in the "MacMillan Dictionary for Children" that
>>I just bought (I'm collecting dictionaries).  It does not contain
>>the word "whilst".  Only "while" and that in verb form as well.
>>(Does whilst have a verb form too?)
>>
>>Interestingly every word that starts with "wh" is given a first
>>pronunciation of ~hw and a second of ~w (except those pronounced as
>>~h, as in who).  I never hear ~hw in USA.  I don't say ~hw so that
>>may have something to do with it.
>>
>>Imagine "whoa" as "hwoa"
>>
>>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
>>see truespel.com phonetic spelling
>>
>>
>>
>>----------------------------------------
>>>Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:11:25 -0300
>>>From: dad at POKERWIZ.COM
>>>Subject: Whilst
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>-----------------------
>>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>Poster: "David A. Daniel"
>>>Subject: Whilst
>>>---
>>>---
>>>---
>>>---
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>A while ago, TZ and somebody - don't remember who - had a tiff
>>>about whether
>>>Americans say whilst. TZ was saying they do not. I agreed (quietly
>>>- I
>>>didn't write anything) at the time, thinking it mostly a Britism.
>>>Well,
>>>immediately thereafter I started hearing whilst all over the place on
>>>American TV shows. I thought: hmph. But then I thought: a lot of
>>>writers for
>>>US TV are Brits and Canadians as are many actors in the US. So
>>>maybe there
>>>was dialect leak going on, with American actors saying Brit/
>>>Canadian-written
>>>lines, or Brit/Canadian actors saying whilst and not knowing
>>>they're not
>>>supposed to. I was satisfied with that hypothesis until the other
>>>day I was
>>>watching CNN and the interviewee, the District Attorney of some
>>>Podunk
>>>county in Ohio, said whilst. So now I'm in a funk and don't know
>>>what to
>>>think. Maybe he is another sleeper spy who missed the ESL class on
>>>while/whilst and thus gave himself away, like when Tony Franciosa
>>>said
>>>loo-tenant instead of leff-tenant and gave himself away as not
>>>being a Brit.
>>>DAD
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
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