It really bugs me when people pronounce "what" like they switch the W and H. So it sounds like huh-WHAT. The H sound is kind of soft though, but you can still hear it and its kind of annoying. No just for what but also where, when, etc.
Anyone know what kind of accent this comes from or why people do it? Thanks.
2007-03-04 07:40:03 · 13 answers · asked by imaqtpai 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Sorry didn't mean to offend! I guess I shouldn't have called it "weird" but just different. I still want to know where it comes from though.
2007-03-04 07:50:43 · update #1
We all have prejudices that arise from how we were taught to pronounce words.
This is how my online dictionary represents how to pronounce the word 'What'
what |(h)wət; (h)wät|
You will notice that the H sound comes before the W sound.
I was taught to pronounce WH sounds with an aspirated H. Is this more correct? I don't know. But my online dictionary seems to think so.
I have always found pronunciations of WH words that leave out the aspirated H to sound odd to me. There is a big difference between the words 'when' and 'wen.' To my ear, I like to hear the H.
It's how I was taught. We all see the through the filter of what we were taught.
I will confess that it grates on my ears when I hear people pronouncing 'milk' as if it were spelled 'melk.' Irrational, I know. But it really bugs me.
2007-03-04 07:46:54 · answer #1 · answered by pasdeberet 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
For many years, this (hwh) was actually the correct pronunciation of a word beginning with 'wh.' It really was. It was considered quite lazy and common to simply use a 'w' sound without the 'h' accompanying it. Over the years, laziness has become vogue. I cannot tell you whether it's now correct (or simply accepted) to drop the 'h.' It's kind of like not ending one's sentence with a preposition. "Who did you give it to?" used to be incorrect. The correct form was "To whom did you give it?" That has changed to where the first sentence is now being taught as correct. Darn. All those years of practice, wasted. Oh, well. Languages that do not change and evolve die. That's really the only two available choices. I guess, coming back to your question, that this is also changing. Both pronunciations are correct now, as far as I know.
2007-03-04 08:00:02 · answer #2 · answered by thejanith 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sorry if this annoys you, but it's the correct way to pronounce any word that begins with 'wh' - like whale, whirl, when, where, and so on. It comes from the time when there were no spelling conventions and people spelled the way they spoke. In old Anglo-Saxon, 'whale' was spelled and pronounced 'hwal'. It was only about the 14th century that Caxton, the printer, started spelling words consistently, and even he spelled some words in more than one way.
If you think that's bad, try the word 'plow'. In England, it's pronounced 'plow', but spelled 'plough', and was originally pronounced 'ploch' (like Bach).
2007-03-04 07:59:34 · answer #3 · answered by JelliclePat 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
some people in eastern Canada fairly, pronounce it "abewt", or something similar. this isn't any longer extremely "aboot", yet their accent does reason something that rhymes with "out" to sound slightly off.
2016-11-27 21:12:43 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry that I could not answer this the way that you wanted, but I will answer in my own way. You say this really bugs you, well I say life is short to sweat the small things. Things such as health, mental stability, family , children, poverty, crime, etc. These are the things that I would put my energies too, as opposed to why someone does not pronounce a word according to your liking. Life is too short . get a grip and hold on.
2007-03-04 07:50:06 · answer #5 · answered by myleshunt 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
LOL, the Hank Hill way.
i sell propane and propane accessories, i tell you h-what.
theres a family guy episode where stewie does that when he says "cool whip". funny stuff.
i dont know why people do that. i guess they want to pronounce all the letters in the word.
2007-03-04 07:49:00 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's only annoying because it's not pronounced that way in your particular phonetic enviromment. It was much stronger in Old English, and it is retained in some dialects of English.
2007-03-04 07:44:38 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
what, where, when, why, wheat, whether, etc. are all correctly pronounced with a "HW" sound. That's English.
2007-03-04 08:16:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I never hear people pronounce it like that. But I say "Wha' " instead of "What."
2007-03-04 07:56:33 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hwhat?
2007-03-04 07:44:20 · answer #10 · answered by Shawn J 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋