Phonological history of wh
Encyclopedia
The pronunciation of the digraph ‹wh› in English
has varied with time, and can still vary today between different regions. According to the historical period
and the accent of the speaker, it is most commonly realised as the consonant cluster
/hw/ or as /w/. Before rounded vowels
, as in who and whole, it is often realized as /h/.
The historical pronunciation of this digraph is in most cases /hw/, but in many dialects of English it has merged with /w/, a process known as the "wine–whine merger". In dialects which maintain the distinction, it is generally transcribed ʍ, and is equivalent to a voiceless [w̥] or [hw̥].
consonant *kʷ. As a result of Grimm's Law
, Indo-European voiceless
stop
s became voiceless fricatives in most environments in Germanic languages
. Thus the labialized
velar stop *kʷ initially became presumably a labialized velar fricative *xʷ in pre-Proto-Germanic, then probably becoming *[ʍ] in Proto-Germanic proper. The sound was used in Gothic
and represented by the symbol known as hwair
; in Old English it was spelled as ‹hw›. The spelling was changed to ‹wh› in Middle English
, but it retained the pronunciation [ʍ], in some dialects as late as the present day.
Because Proto-Indo-European interrogative words typically began with *kʷ, English interrogative words (such as who, which, what, when, where) typically begin with ‹wh›. As a result of this tendency, a common grammatical phenomenon affecting interrogative words has been given the name wh-movement
, even in reference to languages in which interrogative words do not begin with ‹wh›.
In Kent
, the word 'home' is pronounced /woʊm/; the /h/ was labialized to /hw/ before the /oʊ/, and later Kentish
became an h dropping dialect.
/f/. It has occurred in some dialects of Scots
, and in Hiberno-English
with an Irish Gaelic substrate influence (something which has led to an interesting re-borrowing of whisk(e)y as , having originally entered English from Scottish Gaelic). In Scots this leads to pronunciations like:
Whine and fine are homophonous /fain/.
.
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, although the American television show King of the Hill
pokes fun at the issue through character Hank Hill's use of the hypercorrected [hw̥] version in his speech. A similar gag can be found in several episodes of Family Guy
, with Brian becoming extremely annoyed by Stewie's over-emphasis of the /hw/ sound in his pronunciation of "Cool hWhip
" and "hWil hWheaton
".
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49), 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, 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/.
/hw/, and it is transcribed so in most dictionaries, or as a single phoneme /ʍ/, since it is sometimes realized as the single sound [ʍ]. The primary argument for it being a single phoneme is that /h/ does not form any other consonant clusters apart from /hj/ in words like 'hue' /hjuː/, and that can be analyzed as /h/ plus the diphthong
/juː/ rather than as a cluster. Arguments for it being a consonant cluster are that the single-cluster argument is not convincing: only /s/ and /r/ form many clusters, and /ʃ/, for example, is only found as /ʃr/ apart from Yiddish borrowings; that historically there were several other h-clusters (/hn, hr, hl/), of which /hw/ is the last remaining; that speakers' intuition is that it is two consonants; and that in some dialects, such as in parts of Texas, the /h/ is being lost from /hj/ (as in "Houston") just as it was lost earlier from /hw/ and despite the fact that these are not h dropping dialects, suggesting cluster simplification.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
has varied with time, and can still vary today between different regions. According to the historical period
Phonological history of English consonants
The phonological history of English consonants is part of the phonological history of the English language in terms of changes in the phonology of consonants.-H-cluster reductions:* The wine–whine merger is the merger of with...
and the accent of the speaker, it is most commonly realised as the consonant cluster
Consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
/hw/ or as /w/. Before rounded vowels
Roundedness
In phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. That is, it is vocalic labialization. When pronouncing a rounded vowel, the lips form a circular opening, while unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed...
, as in who and whole, it is often realized as /h/.
The historical pronunciation of this digraph is in most cases /hw/, but in many dialects of English it has merged with /w/, a process known as the "wine–whine merger". In dialects which maintain the distinction, it is generally transcribed ʍ, and is equivalent to a voiceless [w̥] or [hw̥].
Early history of ‹wh›
What is now English ‹wh› originated as the Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
consonant *kʷ. As a result of Grimm's Law
Grimm's law
Grimm's law , named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC...
, Indo-European voiceless
Voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...
stop
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
s became voiceless fricatives in most environments in Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
. Thus the labialized
Labialisation
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common...
velar stop *kʷ initially became presumably a labialized velar fricative *xʷ in pre-Proto-Germanic, then probably becoming *[ʍ] in Proto-Germanic proper. The sound was used in Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
and represented by the symbol known as hwair
Hwair
Hwair is the name of , the Gothic letter expressing the or sound . Hwair is also the name of the Latin ligature .-Name:...
; in Old English it was spelled as ‹hw›. The spelling was changed to ‹wh› in Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
, but it retained the pronunciation [ʍ], in some dialects as late as the present day.
Because Proto-Indo-European interrogative words typically began with *kʷ, English interrogative words (such as who, which, what, when, where) typically begin with ‹wh›. As a result of this tendency, a common grammatical phenomenon affecting interrogative words has been given the name wh-movement
Wh-movement
Wh-movement is a syntactic phenomenon found in many languages around the world, in which interrogative words or phrases show a special word order. Unlike ordinary phrases, such wh-words appear at the beginning of an interrogative clause...
, even in reference to languages in which interrogative words do not begin with ‹wh›.
Labialization of /h/ and delabialization of /hw/
In the 15th century, historic /h/ was labialized before a rounded vowel, such as /uː/ or /oː/, and came to be written ‹hw›. The labialization did not occur in all dialects. Later in many dialects /hw/ was delabialized to /h/ in this same environment, whether or not it was the historic pronunciation; in others, the /h/ was dropped, leaving /w/.- who - /huː/ (Old English hwā)
- whom - /huːm/ (Old English hwǣm)
- whole - /hoʊl/ (Old English hāl—cf. 'hale')
In Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, the word 'home' is pronounced /woʊm/; the /h/ was labialized to /hw/ before the /oʊ/, and later Kentish
Kentish dialect
The Kentish dialect combines many features of other speech patterns, particularly those of East Anglia, The Southern Counties and London. Although there are audio examples available on the British Library website and BBC sources, its most distinctive features are in the lexicon rather than in...
became an h dropping dialect.
Wh-labiodentalization
Wh-labiodentalization is the merger of /hw/ and the voiceless labiodental fricativeVoiceless labiodental fricative
The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .-Features:Features of the voiceless labiodental fricative:...
/f/. It has occurred in some dialects of Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
, and in Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English is the dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland .English was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of the late 12th century. Initially it was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with Irish spoken throughout the rest of the country...
with an Irish Gaelic substrate influence (something which has led to an interesting re-borrowing of whisk(e)y as , having originally entered English from Scottish Gaelic). In Scots this leads to pronunciations like:
- whit ("what") - /fɪt/
- whan ("when") - /fan/
Whine and fine are homophonous /fain/.
Wine–whine merger
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 hypercorrectionHypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
.
The merger is essentially complete in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the West Indies, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, and is widespread in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. 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
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(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, although the American television show King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
pokes fun at the issue through character Hank Hill's use of the hypercorrected [hw̥] version in his speech. A similar gag can be found in several episodes of Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
, with Brian becoming extremely annoyed by Stewie's over-emphasis of the /hw/ sound in his pronunciation of "Cool hWhip
Cool Whip
Cool Whip is a brand of imitation whipped cream named a whipped topping by its manufacturer. It is used in North America as a dessert topping and in some no-bake pie recipes. It was generally described as "non-dairy" as it contained no cream or milk and no lactose; however, it did contain the milk...
" and "hWil hWheaton
Wil Wheaton
Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers...
".
According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49), 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, did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
speakers still use /hw/, most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only /w/.
| Homophonous pairs |
|---|
Phonology
Phonologically, the sound of the ‹wh› in words like whine in accents without the merger is either analyzed as the consonant clusterConsonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
/hw/, and it is transcribed so in most dictionaries, or as a single phoneme /ʍ/, since it is sometimes realized as the single sound [ʍ]. The primary argument for it being a single phoneme is that /h/ does not form any other consonant clusters apart from /hj/ in words like 'hue' /hjuː/, and that can be analyzed as /h/ plus the diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
/juː/ rather than as a cluster. Arguments for it being a consonant cluster are that the single-cluster argument is not convincing: only /s/ and /r/ form many clusters, and /ʃ/, for example, is only found as /ʃr/ apart from Yiddish borrowings; that historically there were several other h-clusters (/hn, hr, hl/), of which /hw/ is the last remaining; that speakers' intuition is that it is two consonants; and that in some dialects, such as in parts of Texas, the /h/ is being lost from /hj/ (as in "Houston") just as it was lost earlier from /hw/ and despite the fact that these are not h dropping dialects, suggesting cluster simplification.