Phonological history of wh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The pronunciation of the digraph wh in English has varied with time, and can still vary today between different regions. According to the historical period and the accent of the speaker, it is most commonly realised as the Voiceless labio-velar approximant /ʍ/, the voiced labial-velar approximant /w/, or the consonant cluster /hw/. In a few words, it may be realised as the voiceless glottal fricative /h/.
The pronunciation of this digraph as /ʍ/ is historically the oldest, but in many dialects of English this phoneme has merged with /w/, a process known as the "wine-whine merger".
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[edit] Delabialization
In some words, /ʍ/ has been delabialized to /h/ before the vowels /oː/ and /uː/, resulting in the following pronunciations:
- who - /huː/ (Old English hwā)
- whom - /huːm/ (Old English hwǣm)
[edit] Wh-labiodentalization
Wh-labiodentalization is the merger of /ʍ/ and the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/ occurring in the Māori language and some dialects of Scots resulting in wh' denoting /f/. In Scots this leads to pronunciations like:
- whit (what) - /fɪt/
- whan (when) - /fan/
Whine and fine become homophonous as /fain/.
[edit] Wine-whine merger
The wine-whine merger is a merger by which the voiceless labio-velar approximant (/ʍ/) or sequence /hw/ (spelled wh) becomes voiced to /w/; it occurs in the speech of the great majority of English speakers. The resulting /w/ is generally pronounced like the original /w/, but sometimes like the original /ʍ/ or /hw/; this may be due to hypercorrection.
The merger is essentially complete in England, Wales, the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and is widespread in the United States and Canada. In accents with the merger, pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, weather/whether, wail/whale, Wales/whales, wear/where, witch/which etc. are homophonous. The merger is not found in Scotland, Ireland (except in the popular speech of Dublin, although the merger is now spreading more widely), and parts of the U.S. and Canada. The merger is not usually stigmatized except occasionally by very speech-conscious people.
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49)[1], while there are regions of the U.S. (particularly in the Southeast) where speakers keeping the distinction are about as numerous as those having the merger, there are no regions where the preservation of the distinction is predominant (see map). Throughout the U.S. and Canada, about 83% of respondents in the survey had the merger completely, while about 17% preserved at least some trace of the distinction.
The wine-whine merger, although apparently present in the south of England as early as the 13th century,[2] did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP speakers still use /ʍ/, most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only /w/.
Phonologically, the sound of the wh in words like whine in accents without the merger is either analyzed as the consonant cluster /hw/, and it is transcribed so in most dictionaries, or as a single phoneme /ʍ/, since it is realized as the single sound [ʍ].
[edit] In popular culture
On the animated television series Family Guy, an exchange took place between characters Stewie and Brian with regards to pronouncing Cool Whip. Stewie pronounced the word "Coo Hwip", which angered and confused Brian. Brian later has a similar exchange with Stewie's sister Meg.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Labov, William; Sharon Ash; Charles Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
- ^ Minkova, Donka (2004). "Philology, linguistics, and the history of /hw/~/w/.", in In Anne Curzan and Kimberly Emmons, eds.,: Studies in the History of the English language II: Unfolding Conversations. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 7-46. ISBN 3-11-018097-9.
