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After 14 years of wedded bliss, I've discovered that my husband never pronounces the "h" in a "wh" combination. when=wen... what=wat... whale=wale. Likewise, he's never noticed that I do pronounce the "h"! After consulting the dictionary, we see that MY way is better, but his was is accepted. Is this a regional thing? He lived in Rhode Island until the age of 10, but Richmond, Virginia from 10 to 50 (and sounds like a Richmonder). I was raised in East Tennessee.
You have me giggling as I just realized my online dictionary has an audio function! I was born in Connecticut, but have been living in New Hampshire for over a decade. Another entire set of contrasting styles here! "Dowwwn cella" is how I pronounce "in the basement"!
Clearly your pronounciation of the "h" and your husband's silent "h" must be very subtle to the ear. I believe that indeed, it is a regional thing. ALL of the sources I checked state that the "h" is silent. An example equated the pronounciation of wail and whale as being identical.
The only exceptions come from southerners. Those from the southeast quadrant to be exact. Not to disappoint you, but your way is not better nor generally taught. I'd say 14 years of marriage with good communication, h or no h, take the gold!!!
I tried to find a YouTube clip of the Family Guy scene (it's actually been done several times) but none of the promising versions were linkable enough to share here.
The most extreme case of over-aspiration is in the '30s recording of Cab Calloway doing "Minnie the Moocher", where he leans so hard on the H sound that it turns "whale" into a three-syllable word: "Minnie had a heart as big as a hey-huh-wale". This recording is too early for the glitch to have come from a fumbled tape edit, so I can only assume that Cab actually sang it that way.
Has anyone ever seen the show, "Cheaters"? I don't know the guy's name, but his pronounciation of cheaters is comical. Barbara Walters (remember Gilda Radner doing Baba Wawa on SNL LOL) also tends to over annunciate but she can carry it off. Here in the northeast, I think there's a lot of ill advised affect.....
wordsarecool said:
You have me giggling as I just realized my online dictionary has an audio function! I was born in Connecticut, but have been living in New Hampshire for over a decade. Another entire set of contrasting styles here! "Dowwwn cella" is how I pronounce "in the basement"!
Clearly your pronounciation of the "h" and your husband's silent "h" must be very subtle to the ear. I believe that indeed, it is a regional thing. ALL of the sources I checked state that the "h" is silent. An example equated the pronounciation of wail and whale as being identical.
The only exceptions come from southerners. Those from the southeast quadrant to be exact. Not to disappoint you, but your way is not better nor generally taught. I'd say 14 years of marriage with good communication, h or no h, take the gold!!!
:=) Only said that my way was better because it appeared as the first pronunciation in every dictionary that I checked. I see that I'm clearly in the minority!
It's strange that you New Englanders don't encounter is more, because I've always thought it was something encountered up and down the Eastern seaboard. I've had friends from Boston, Chesapeake, and Atlanta say "hw-ere" for "where", but my Midwestern tongue does "wh" as a solid "w", just like Mary Jo's husband. It's interesting that he's from Richmond and pronounces it that way.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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