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Some proposals suggest respelling ''wh'' as ''hw''. I don't like that. In my Scottish
accent the ''wh'' in ''whine'' is pronounced as a voiceless ''w'' not a ''hw''. The
best way to spell ''wh'' words in a phonemic spelling reform (if one were to happen)
would be to keep the ''wh'' diagraph or to add a new letter for the voiceless ''w''.
Would you agree?
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I agree. Here's another reason. Most of us (including me) pronounce "wh" and "w"
the same way. By the looks of "wh" it seems that pronouncing it /w/ is okay, not
so for "hw". I makes sense for us (who pronounce "wh" as /w/) that the "wh" words
be listed with the "w" words in dictionaries. I'm sure someone is about to bring
up the "Huang River".
Of course, the "wh" in "who", "whore", "whole", etc. is a different story.
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Why do you think someone is about to bring up the Huang River?
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We could also just add that upside down ''w'' letter for /W/. How would that be?
I think it looks a bit like an ''m''. Is that bad?
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It's happened so often in the past when "wh" vs. "hw" has been discussed: inductive
reasoning. However since I've already mentioned it things may well be different
this time.
The upside-down "w" does look a bit like "m", yes, and I'd say that is bad. It's
better to use an upside-down "m". This looks like a "w". "Mis"pronounce /W/ as
/w/ and that's no big problem. Mispronounce /W/ as /m/ and it is a big problem.
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''It's happened so often in the past when "wh" vs. "hw" has been discussed: inductive
reasoning. However since I've already mentioned it things may well be different this
time.''
Well, it's another reason why replacing ''wh'' with ''hw'' is a bad idea. If we replaced
''wh'' with ''hw'' then what would we do with ''Huang River'' which actually starts
with /hw/? i.e. /hwa:N riv..r/.
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Here's what I say (This is something I told Erimir) ''hw'' for ''wh'' is a bad idea
unless you'll be consistant and also replace ''sh'' with ''hs'', ''th'' with ''ht''
etc.
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''The upside-down "w" does look a bit like "m", yes, and I'd say that is bad. It's
better to use an upside-down "m". This looks like a "w". "Mis"pronounce /W/ as /w/
and that's no big problem. Mispronounce /W/ as /m/ and it is a big problem.''
I'd agree that using an upside-down ''m'' would be better. If someone mispronounced
''when'' as ''men'' or ''whine'' as ''mine'' then they'd get a strange look in Scotland
(and elsewhere too, I'd think).
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