> > 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
>
> To me, the pronunciation of "wh" words as "hw" evokes dreadful upper-class and middle-class-pretending-to-be-upper-class Pommie pretentiousness. OK, it's not pretentious if you genuinely do speak that way, but that's the way it always sounds to me. Sorry.
>
> We have our very own "wh" issue in New Zealand too. A lot of Maori place names start with "Wh" and also with "W". It used to be perfectly simple: the former is pronounced "f" and the latter is pronounced "w". Nowadays the debate is insane. Are ALL "wh"s pronounced "f"? Or just some of them? Which ones, then? Does it depend on which tribe's particular accent the area was named in originally? Was it misspelled by English colonists? At this point, political correctness drives all vestiges of thought from everyone's tiny brains and they all start pronouncing the normal "w" as "f" too. Eek. Sometimes I think if I hear one more newsreader pronounce Wanganui as if it was Whanganui, I'll scream.
>
> Brunnen-"still on about newsreaders, yeah"G

Geez. WH words shouldn't have the H pronounced. It's silent, just like the E at the end of CAKE. If you insist on pronouncing the H, at least pronounce it after the W.
I've only met two people who pronounce the H in words like WHAT and WHY, and they both say HWAT and HWY. It's not supposed to be pronounced with the H, and if you have to, at least follow the order of the letters!

-eric "I have the most bizarre feeling of deja vu about this whole WHAT/HWAT/WAT forum post. It seems like I've made another post about it, but I can't remember if I actually have" sleator
Thu 4 May A.D. 2000