Re: Spelling pronunciations (was: rhotic miscellany)

Andreas Johansson scripsit:

> I probably noticed it due to my faux-archaic habit of adding a [h] in front of
> Swedish question-words in 'v-'. They, of course, descend from the same IE kw
> that gave English 'wh-' and Latin 'qu-'. Sometimes I even adopt the
> pronunciation of certain northern dialects, which have [kv] here.
Old English had [xw-], and though the majority of dialects now have [w-],
some still have [hw-] or [W].  In Scots, [xw-] became [kw-] for a while,
as shown by older Scots spellings like quha (who) and quhilk (which),
(now written "wha" and "whilk").

--
Do NOT stray from the path!             John Cowan <jcowan@...>
        --Gandalf                       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan

Reply