Re: A question

John Cowan wrote:

> Tom Weir wrote:
>
> > > One other phenomenon I think *will* come to completion is the loss of
> > > voiceless  /w_0/ as a phoneme in English, which used to characterize the difference
> > > between "weather" and "whether".  I think all standard dialects (except perhaps
> > > the educated speech of Scotland) have already done away with this, and in the US at
> > > least it survives  only in a few regional varieties, mostly rural ones.
>
> Eric Christopherson replied:
>
> > I get annoyed when my mother and grandmother occasionally say /hw/, because
> > to me it seems too formal or something. I thought that was actually a pretty
> > common characteristic in American English.
>
> It is widely found in the Southeast, but perhaps not in Texas;
> my wife (from North Carolina) makes the distinction automatically,
> and even tends to hear it where it isn't there --- I had to disabuse
> her the other day of the notion that *I* use it.
>
> I also know a Virginian named Whitlock who insists on /WItlak/ and
> corrects people who say /wItlak/.  Fortunately, most American
> native speakers *can* enunciate /W/ if they make a conscious effort.
You're right, it's not very common here.  In fact, I don't know of any
native Texan that uses it.  Texas was originally settled by people from
Missouri, so maybe that has something to do with it.

My linguistics professor said, however, that it's still quite common in the
South, by which he means basicly everything east  of the Mississippi
(he himself is from Mississippi).  So that would seem to confirm what
you say here.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
AIM: Deuterotom ICQ: 4315704
<http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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