wine and whine

Are these two words pronounced the same way?

For most native speakers, yes.

That's not me, that's some fake-ass punk. :-)

I'm a different Juan. I'll write my name as ''Juan C.'' to avoid the confusion.

Yup......exactly the same way for me. In most words beginning with "wh" the "h" is not sounded: "when" "where" "what" "wheat" "whale" "which" as examples.

Not so in words such as "who" or "whore"....then the "w" is silent and the words pronounced as "hoo" or "hore".

In "whistle" "whistling" for me the "h" is just slightly enunciated after the "w". Is that the same for everyone else?

It's best to worry about correcting the big errors in pronunciation before debating the little ones.

What Mxsmanic writes is true. Only the most advanced ESL students need even think about this. Teaching it to lower levels is only going to create more problems than it solves.

This problem can be seen in Japan where they insist on making this distinction when transliterating "wh" words into katakana (a Japanese syllabic writing system) whilst they overlook some more important distinctions made in English. The problem is that they try transcribing it as /hw/ but no such consonant cluster exists in Japanese so they mangle it. This mangled pronunciation is reinforced by school teachers leaving students pronouncing "white whip" as /howait hoip/ (or, worse, /howaitohoipu/).

However, perhaps this "J. C." is actually a native speaker.

I normally pronounce the "wh" in all words as either /w/ (as in "wine" = /wain/) or /h/ (as in "home" = /hOum/). This includes "whistle". Most native speakers are in the same boat.

There are a few of us who make the distinction and they are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes by.

''However, perhaps this "J. C." is actually a native speaker.''

Why would a native English speaker ask such a question? It's more often non-native English speakers asking such questions so wouldn't you think it was a non-native English speaker?

What does J. C. write so good that you can't see how he can be a non-native English speaker?

Jim,
that's because katakana transcription is not really english... and we know that. Besides, same thing happens for many foreign speakers of Japanese too. I don't think it is a trend that can be seen only in Japan or any other places, I think more or less the same thing applies to many people learning a foreign language.

In fact, transcribing the english /hw-/ as /how-/ is becoming less common. Many English Japanese dictionaries for beginning students (where they show katakana transcriptions) now transcribe it as a simple /w/ sound, like "watt(o)/wott(o)" for "what", etc. (to at the end is usually written smaller, so that people will not emphasize it.) Although, I believe that katakana(or any other foreign characters which are not meant to transcribe english pronunciation) is terrible for learning English pronunciation.

Jim, Do you think that by the year 2100, there will no longer be any distinction between ''wh'' and ''w'' at all, in any accent?

Santa Claus,

"Why would a native English speaker ask such a question?"

Why not?

"It's more often non-native English speakers asking such questions ..."

Is it? You've done some kind of study of this?

"... so wouldn't you think it was a non-native English speaker?"

Do you understand the word "perhaps"?

"What does J. C. write so good that you can't see how he can be a non-native English speaker?"

From three sentences you expect I can judge?

Japanese guy,

No, it's definitely not only a Japanese-English and English-Japanese phenomenon. I just like using Japanese as an example because I'm more familiar with Japanese than with any other language (besides, English, of course). I agree that using katakana is a terrible way of learning English pronunciation.

2100,

Yes, that sounds probable.