>alypius wrote:
>
>> I grew up in SE Texas, and I not only say /hw/, but I thought everyone
else
>> did too! It's news to me if this phoneme is headed for extinction. It
>> would be a pity to lose it, its such an enchanting sound...whistle,
whirl,
>> whipoorwill, whack, whoa (not woe)...a whopper is a big hamburger ; a
>> wopper, I would guess, a big Italian.
>
>Where did you grow up? Maybe it's just a Houston thing, or an urban-rural
>thing; people in Austin don't have the distinction either.
Mostly rural and small town areas. SE Texas is also very southern
culturally. BTW, I think the early Anglo settlements in Texas probably
included more people from Tennessee than Missouri.
>
>Or it could be just that both cities have lots and lots of emigrees from up
north,
>or out west, which they do, and so don't preserve the distinction.
Could be.
But I've never
>noticed the distinction anywhere else in the state; my mother's also from
Waco, and
>doesn't make the distinction.
Waco's pretty far north from where I grew up--Big Thicket country.
>
>(BTW, I like it too, which is why, just for fun, I have almost fully
integrated it
>into my phoneme inventory :) )
>