> Straying ever so slightly from the original intent of this thread, Darien's take on slurred words reminds me of the several occasions when a big to-do has been made of the fact that I pronounce the "h" as well as the "w" in words that begin with "wh". Apparently, everyone else pronounces "which" as "witch", "white" as "wight", "where" as "wear", and so forth. Am I the only one out here that gives the lowly "h" its proper due?

I do, for reasons I don't know. My brother hates it and yells his pronunciation at me WHenever I use such words. My only defense is like, it's in the dictionary. I don't (didn't) know anyone else who pronounced it this way.

> Bonus random neural firing: WHy is it that WHen both the "w" and the "h" in a "wh" word are pronounced, they are spoken as though the "h" came first? "Where" sounds like "hwere", at least to me. I guess, though, that trying to pronounce the "w" first just makes the word sound like "wuh-hair". Eh, *shrug*. All I know is that I love this ridiculous native tongue of mine.
>
> Iss "let me wuh-hisper in your ear, doo da doo" achar

If you try to pronounce the W first and the H second and don't want to segment the word ("wuh-hisper") then the W comes out as a double O: "oohisper." That's just weird, and sounds vaguely German, so it got the switcheroo.

Do they pronounce the H first in Britain? The early US, in its anti-British attitudes, changed the standard spellings of English, so couldn't they change their pronunciation, too?

gab"Hwy not?"by