[Ads-l] /hw/ vs. /w/ (was: Re: which)

[Laurence Horn]

Well, at least this time I’ll change the subject line.  I don’t know if
there are speakers who retain the distinction for some lexical items that
historically displayed it while merging elsewhere.  There *are* speakers
like me who artificially induce the distinction in overtly contrastive
environments:  “Did you say ‘weather’ /'wEdh at r/ or ‘whether’ /'hwEdh at r/?”
Or “‘Did you mean 'witch’ or “which’?”  Or, I suppose, “Are you talking
about ‘wide wale’ or ‘wide whale’?”  I love the image of wide-whale
corduroys…

LH

On Jul 8, 2020, at 3:13 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:

I’ve lost various aspects of my native Kentucky dialect since I last lived
there decades ago, but I seem to retain /hw/, although the extent of this
varies by word.

Do other speakers retain /hw/ for words such as “whale,” for which (at
least for me) it is relatively more pronounced?

John Baker

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of
Laurence Horn
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 10:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: weird "which"

External Email - Think Before You Click


Thanks, Matt. So not New England, despite the practice of my wife (b. NYC
1944, raised CT). Interesting. I know there’s a complete merger for my
students (and children) except for some students from Kentucky and adjacent
regions, consistent with the below finding.

LH

On Jul 8, 2020, at 10:21 AM, Gordon, Matthew J. <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU<
mailto:GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>>> wrote:

It was examined by Labov and colleagues for the Atlas of North American
English (published in 2006 with data collected in 1990s). They found the
distinction between /hw/ and /w/ scattered across the US with a
concentration of distinguishers in the South. Their isogloss goes south
from West Virginia to GA and has a narrow band that extends west to
Lubbock. Map is on p. 50 if you have ANAE.


I believe it's age-graded in their data. Their narrative definitely
suggests it's disappearing from use.


Matt

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org