Re: A question

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.

--
        John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan      cowan@ccil.org
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! / Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau / Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.
                        -- Coleridge / Politzer