wh [hw]

Do you pronounce wh- as [hw]?
What do you think of people who pronounce it like this?
Do you find it strange or just different?
Like this lady: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngppTKsGssc

Well it's usually transcribed as [ʍ], a voiceless labiovelar approximant. (The distinction seems to be known mainly as the wine-whine distinction.) The distinction is basically extinct here in Massachusetts, and I think it's mostly limited to parts of the Southern US, as well as Scotland and Ireland. I do find it rather odd and noticeable when I hear people make the distinction.

This isn't necessarily standard in the South, but it is in Appalachia. I have a friend from North Carolina and a few more from Tennessee who pronounce wh as [hw] (I don't know the x-sampa code).

It sounds pompous.

I only do that if for some odd reason I'm thinking about it.

I live in the state of Washington and I've lived there my whole life. I've never made a distinction between "w" and "wh" in terms of sound. Nobody else I know has made it either.

Here is the map: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map8.html

I make the distinction, especially when a 'wh' word is stressed
if unstressed, the distiction is still there, but less perceived

I currently reside in the coastal region of North Carolina

I remember back in third grade my teacher writing on the board that "wh" should really be spelt "hw" and we were taught the distinction in school

I grew up in the midwest of all places

I had one high school English teacher who made the distinction - although she's pretty much the only person from Massachusetts that I've ever heard make it, and I suspect that she had acquired it non-natively - and when she was teaching us about alliteration, she said without qualification that "w" could not alliterate with "wh". Even though none of the students in the class, or indeed in the whole school, made the distinction, and even if the author probably didn't make it either. Ah, the joys of prescriptivism... :)

I have definitely heard North Americans maintain a consistent distinction between /w/ and /ʍ/ in Real Life, but I myself wonder what proportion of them truly have such natively and for what proportion of them such is learned. Hell, at some point, I myself for one sort of picked such up, which I will use at times for whatever reason, but such is definitely not a native pronunciation in the dialect here. (And even then, it often comes out as [ɸʍ] or [xʍ], indicating that such is really not a native pronunciation.)

I have noticed that noted physicist Michio Kaku seems to have the wine-whine distinction. If you listen to the YouTube clip listed below (fast-forward to 02:15), Kaku consistently uses what sounds like [ʍ] in the word "white" when referring to a white hole.

I do not know if this is a feature of his native dialect, as he was born in San Jose, California, but has spent the last twenty-five odd years of his life in New York, New York. I have read that this distinction is sometimes found in California, but I believe it is generally restricted to the San Joaquin Valley and perhaps Sacramento.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1YISR8vN0U

That's interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I think it is more common among highly educated people. It makes one sound very intellectual.

Some songs with obvious WH [hw]:

Aretha Franklin - Rose is still a rose
Garbage - The World is not enough
Toni Braxton - Hit the freeway
Dhani - Quiero respirar
Basic Connection - You are my Love
Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Were Made For Walking

The funniest thing: many people born in London find pronouncing h pompous and formal, as in house, have, head... they like keeping it silent...