To North Americans, How do you pronounce "when".
I always pronounce it [wIn]. It rhymes with "sin" [sIn] for me, rather than with "hen" [hEn].
I always pronounce it [wIn]. It rhymes with "sin" [sIn] for me, rather than with "hen" [hEn].
How do you pronounce "when"?
I always pronounce those as:
when : ["wE~:n]
sin : ["sI~:n]
hen : ["hE~:n]
when : ["wE~:n]
sin : ["sI~:n]
hen : ["hE~:n]
I, like many Northwesterners, pronounce them as:
when: [wIn] (same as "win")
sin: [sIn]
hen: [hEn] (not the same as *hin [hIn] )
when: [wIn] (same as "win")
sin: [sIn]
hen: [hEn] (not the same as *hin [hIn] )
New Mexico, and mine rhymes with hen and men. And I don't pronounce the H.
<<[hwEn]>>
Is that actually how you naturally pronounce it, or is that how you've been taught to pronounce it? For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.
when [wE~] or [wEn]
sin [sI~] or [sIn]
hen [hE~] or [hEn]
Is that actually how you naturally pronounce it, or is that how you've been taught to pronounce it? For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.
when [wE~] or [wEn]
sin [sI~] or [sIn]
hen [hE~] or [hEn]
>>Is that actually how you naturally pronounce it, or is that how you've been taught to pronounce it? For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.<<
Mind you, though, that this distinction is not extinct as a native usage in North America, even though the merged pronunciation is by far the most widespread there. I myself have heard individuals with the distinction between /w/ and /W/ in a fashion that did not seem like a spelling pronunciation (that is, [W] not [hw]) not too infrequently (I hear them much more frequently than North Americans who aren't father-bother-merged, for instance), even though the Upper Midwest itself seems firmly merged.
Mind you, though, that this distinction is not extinct as a native usage in North America, even though the merged pronunciation is by far the most widespread there. I myself have heard individuals with the distinction between /w/ and /W/ in a fashion that did not seem like a spelling pronunciation (that is, [W] not [hw]) not too infrequently (I hear them much more frequently than North Americans who aren't father-bother-merged, for instance), even though the Upper Midwest itself seems firmly merged.
<<Is that actually how you naturally pronounce it, or is that how you've been taught to pronounce it? For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.>>
And those people often use [W] in words that don't even have an "h" after the "w".
And those people often use [W] in words that don't even have an "h" after the "w".
I always pronounce it ["wEn].
<<For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.>>
Not to disparage people who do natively make the distinction - because as Travis points out, it's not *entirely* extinct in North America - but I had an English teacher in high school who made the witch-which distinction; she wasn't Southern, and I strongly suspect that she herself had picked it up non-natively. Anyway, she was teaching us about alliteration, and she said something like, "Remember, if there's a word that begins with 'w' and a word that begins with 'wh', that doesn't count as alliteration." So she absolutely refused to acknowledge examples of 'w'-'wh' alliteration, even when the intent was obvious. The author didn't make the distinction, and neither do any of her students, and neither do any English people or most North Americans, but it still "doesn't count".
<<For almost everyone outside Scotland and Ireland, 'wh' and 'w' are the same, but for some reason, teachers have latched on to this as 'incorrect'. There are many people who try to distinguish these words because they think it's better, but it usually just comes across as forced.>>
Not to disparage people who do natively make the distinction - because as Travis points out, it's not *entirely* extinct in North America - but I had an English teacher in high school who made the witch-which distinction; she wasn't Southern, and I strongly suspect that she herself had picked it up non-natively. Anyway, she was teaching us about alliteration, and she said something like, "Remember, if there's a word that begins with 'w' and a word that begins with 'wh', that doesn't count as alliteration." So she absolutely refused to acknowledge examples of 'w'-'wh' alliteration, even when the intent was obvious. The author didn't make the distinction, and neither do any of her students, and neither do any English people or most North Americans, but it still "doesn't count".
Travis mentioned the difference between [hw] and [W], and think it's important. As far as I can tell, people who natively distinguish witch-which use [W] in the latter, whereas other people who've adopted the distinction use [hw]. From what I've read, in North America only part of Texas still has a majority of witch-which distinguishing speakers, and even there it was only a slight majority. I'm a little suspicious about statistics for this feature though, because most language surveys are self-reported, so there could be a lot of people who say that they make this distinction because they think it's correct.
>>As far as I can tell, people who natively distinguish witch-which use [W] in the latter, whereas other people who've adopted the distinction use [hw].<<
This is the case in North American English, yes. However, the witch-which distinction may show up in other ways in Scots and Scottish English dialects under its influence. Northern Scots has [f] rather than [W], and more conservative forms of Scots may have [xW] rather than [W], one must remember.
This is the case in North American English, yes. However, the witch-which distinction may show up in other ways in Scots and Scottish English dialects under its influence. Northern Scots has [f] rather than [W], and more conservative forms of Scots may have [xW] rather than [W], one must remember.