what does the wh sound, sound like?

Question

I have seen in wikipedia, and various dictionaries that in English there is a wh sound (ʍ) as in when and which.

Now I am a native speaker of the American dialect, midwestern to be exact. The sound to me in water, and when are the same...

Does this sound actually exist, or is it extinct? It this a British English sound that we don't use here??

Here's a humorous note. I just realized that when Dave Chappelle does his Lil' John sketches, he says what I assume is the ʍ sound. Huh-What!!

Answer 1

Nowadays the "wh" sound is pronounced exactly like "w", except by a few speakers who pronounce it "hw". I would imagine this latter practice goes back all the way to Old English, which had words such as "Hwæt", a cognate to Modern English "what" that had an attention-getting meaning closer to "Listen!" or "Lo!".

A good example of a speaker who uses the "hw" pronunciation is Terry Jacks--see "Seasons in the Sun".

Answer 2

The hw/wh sound is only found in a few dialects of American English anymore. Most dialects of American English have collapsed this sound with w. The sound is simply a voiceless w. When you make a w, put your fingers on your Adam's apple and feel the vibrations. That is voicing. Turn off the vibrations and you have the sound represented in Old English writing as hw and in Middle and Modern English as wh. Old English also had voiceless r as in hræfn 'raven', voiceless n as in hnut 'nut', and voiceless l as in hlaf 'bread'. So losing the voiceless w in words like which is just the very last step in a long process of losing voiceless sonorants at the beginning of words in English.

Answer 3

Benjamin, you are starting down the road to actual linguistics; that's awesome!

Linguistics is one of the most fascinating classes you can take as an undergraduate in college. If you get the chance, explore it. It's challenging, but it will give you some real insights. I've seen people studying suddenly get a light bulb on over their heads as if to say "No wonder...!"

You're describing a phoneme, (a phonetic sound) not necessarily a letter in an alphabet anymore.

Check out the wiki page for the international phonetic alphabet. I don't expect you to understand it all right away (that's what college professors are for) but it includes the entire range of sounds for the human speech system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

You may have seen and heard native Africans (in a documentary or something) speaking with a clicking noise..? That's represented by "!" if you were to write out their language (of the Khoisan) in the phonetic alphabet. It's very, very interesting stuff.

To specifically answer your question. Yes. There is a phonetic difference. They are pronounced differently. The most common pronunciation for a given language is listed in the dictionary.

Answer 4

The proper pronunciation of the phoneme "wh" should sound like "hw" and in RP (Received Pronunciation, which is the standard in the UK) it actually functions to differentiate between words with different meanings. Look at the following examples:

whither <---> wither
whine <---> wine
which <---> witch

Answer 5

Dialects are changing all the time.

It is proper to use the sound made by "w" in "water" to pronounce "when."

It is equally proper to use a sound that is somewhere between a straight "w" like in "water" and an "Hw" sound like in "Schwinn" bicycles so that "when" almost sounds like "hwhen."

Answer 6

sound like a music

Answer 7

sounds like the breeze- it's a whistle without sound

Answer 8

When, What, water, where, wake, wet.....the "wh" and "w" all sound the same to me.....

Answer 9

it exists, you simply have a regional accent that has dropped the differentiation.

Answer 10

"Wuh", of course! The "h" is silent!