Re: Spelling pronunciations (was: rhotic miscellany)

Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:

> From:    Muke Tever <hotblack@...>
> Tristan Mc Leay <conlang@...> wrote:
> > > ISTR some American dialects also have /wVt/ for 'what'.
> >
> > I think that's _most_ American dialects.  Er, what vowel do your people
> > put in it?
>
> Do you really speak a dialect of American English that contrasts
> /V/ with /@/? My dialect certainly doesn't make such a contrast.
> (My dialect also allows for a voiceless glide at the beginning.)
I don't know if that's what you're refering to, but some Americans I've heard on
TV seem to produce "what", or rather the astounded interjection "What?!?", like
[hwAt] with an audible initial glottal fricative. Is this anything any of you
Americans rec'nize?

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.

                                              Andreas

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