wh pronunciation

chico   Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:33 pm GMT
I have 4 half brothers whose last name is Whittington. Some of them pronounce their last name as if it is wittington. This what I do. To me the h directily behind a w is always silent. The color white to me is wite.

My mom however and two of my brothers say hwittington. the h is pronounced before the w. mom also says hwite. the sound is like an aspiration or soft h before the w. is this correct?

is it archaic or standard or just plain wrong. If I remember correctly, I was taught that the h behind a w in English is silent. as is the h behind the t in Theresa.

Thanks for any advice here.
little_brat   Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:44 pm GMT
if you have any voice synthesizer, even that filthy swine defaultOS stuff is fine: just type it in any word there and you'll get the correct pronunciation, it worked the whole thing for me, shit.
US   Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:03 pm GMT
The h is hardly ever pronounced. The 'h' is ignored in the vast majority of the cases.
Kess   Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:38 pm GMT
US   Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:56 pm GMT
Oh, come on, no one pronounces it that way.
US   Thu Apr 15, 2010 8:58 pm GMT
From the 'pedia

The wine-whine merger is a merger by which voiceless /hw/ is reduced to voiced /w/. It has occurred historically in the dialects of the great majority of English speakers. The resulting /w/ is generally pronounced [w], but sometimes [hw̥]; this may be hypercorrection.
The merger is essentially complete in England, Wales, the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and is widespread in the United States and Canada. In accents with the merger, pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, weather/whether, wail/whale, Wales/whales, wear/where, witch/which etc. are homophonous. The merger is not found in Scotland, Ireland (except in the popular speech of Dublin, although the merger is now spreading more widely), and parts of the U.S. and Canada. The merger (or the lack thereof) is not usually stigmatized except occasionally by very speech-conscious people, and for humorous purposes (e.g. the TV show Family Guy has a recurring joke about non-merged speech).
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49)[1], while there are regions of the U.S. (particularly in the Southeast) where speakers keeping the distinction are about as numerous as those having the merger, there are no regions where the preservation of the distinction is predominant (see map). Throughout the U.S. and Canada, about 83% of respondents in the survey had the merger completely, while about 17% preserved at least some trace of the distinction.
The wine-whine merger, although apparently present in the south of England as early as the 13th century,[2] did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP speakers still use /hw/, most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only /w/.
Leasnam   Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:14 am GMT
wh = hw

but usually you will hear no 'h', it only comes to the fore when the word is stressed or inwiteously enunciated

I still remember being taught in school that wh = hw and seeing it on the chalkboard (yes, I am old)
Kess   Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:41 am GMT
HW W unmerged pronunciation was used in a recent dance song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt0trJNvH1o
Kess   Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:42 am GMT
The unmerged pronunciation is still strong in Scottland and in the Southern US states (especially Texas). It can be found
sporadically in other parts of US, Canada, and in the Southern NZ Island.
Texan   Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:02 am GMT
H Dubya is the only way to pronounce W Aitch
Quintus   Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:49 am GMT
>>My mom however and two of my brothers say hwittington>>

Make your mama proud, Chico, and follow your family's example : say "hwittington".

The ancient feature of 'wh' in English is well retained, as it reflects the closely related Norse languages which have 'hv' : what = hvaĆ°, hvat, hva ; white = hvit, hvid.

Seemingly archaical things are a living, noble presence in the world. Many folk seem blind or resistant to that continuum ~ and that's a great pity.

Whittington is a fine old name. May you prosper with the legacy !
Damian in Scotland   Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:31 pm GMT
***The unmerged pronunciation is still strong in Scottland***

We've been discussing the topic of tea drinking in Britain in another thread and this includes Scotland of course where this particular activity is every bit a feature of daily life as it is in the rest of the UK, but there's really no need to emphasise it that much.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:51 pm GMT
Whittington.....a small village in Shropshire, England - allegedly the birthplace of the legendary Dick Whittington (d 1423) who walked all the way down to London in the late 14th century carrying a stick over his shoulder at the end of which was tied a bag containing his entire worldly possessions, his sole companion being his faithful cat.

He went to London as poor as a church mouse, without a penny to his name, but he soon became totally fascinated by London and its way of life as it was in those days, and he became spellbound by the sound of the tolling and chiming bells of the large number of churches in the city, so much so that he refused to leave the city and return home to peaceful little Whittington which only had one church and only one belfry with a single pealing bell, which of course is still there in full working order next to a duck pond on the village green.

He found work and eventually became a very wealthy merchant and in time attained the status of Lord Mayor of London three times....the well known saying being "Dick Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London".

The story of Dick Whittington is now a popular Christmas/New Year season pantomime here in the UK, and the part of Dick Whittington is always, but always, played by an attractive young girl with long, elegant legs and wearing very short shorts and a characteristic Dick Whittington style hat. Her (sorry..his) cat is played by a small man dressed in a ridiculous cat like costume with whiskers about four feet wide and a long wispy tail, and one with an astonishing ability to understand every spoken word in the English language, 21st century style.

In the real Dick Whittington's day the English language was in its very early stages of development in the England of the day.

Anyway, nobody ever aspirates the "h" in Whittington - not even the people who live in that wee village in Shropshire, not far from the border with Wales.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:01 pm GMT
Ooops....my mistake......Richard Whittington (better known as the famed Dick Whittington I referred to above) was actually from Pauntley, in the Forest of Dean area of Gloucestershire, England, and NOT from Whittington, Shropshire - it's a popular misconception that he came from that eponymous Shropshire village which does indeed have a mediaeval castle and a duck pond.

The rest of the story is factual, but anyway, the important thing is this - the "h" is silent in Whittington, whether it applies to a place or person, much the same as it is in words like "white" "when" "which" or "whatever"....whisper it low.....
Gue   Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:03 pm GMT
Much like the "k" is silent in "knee", the "g" is silent in "gnome" and the "w" is silent in "wrap".