'wh' words

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Sheila Watts writes:

>  I think we've been round the /hw/ block before, but for anyone else who
>  thinks it was there in English 'once', I can assure you that it is alive
>  and kicking in Ireland and Scotland. It is the norm for us to the extent
>  that we find /w/-substitution incomprehensible when contextual information
>  is inadequate. I have seen a small English child cause total confusion by
>  announcing that he 'loved animals, and had done a project on wales at
>  school'.

Yes; I've had this experience too.  Last year an administrator came
to talk to me about my department's work.  At one point she asked me
whether what I was telling her about had anything to do with "that
recent work on Wales".  I was wholly at sea for some moments, even
after a repetition, until it finally struck me that she was talking
about whales.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: 01273-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: 01273-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)