Something I was wondering about this morning: native English speakers, do you pronounce initial [wh] and initial [w] differently? I.e., is there a difference in the way you pronounce 'which' and 'witch' or 'whether' and 'weather'?
Please boost for reach.
I think it's dying out in the US as well. When I was a child in the 1950s, I was drilled on the difference by an elementary school teacher, and later on, in the 2000s, I was chastised by a stuffy professor for pronouncing 'whale' without the h.
Maybe it's just Boomers who differentiate now.
I would pronounce the slightest "h" in those.
But I'm northern irish so it might be poor dental care
My children wouldn't pronounce the "h" in Whale or Which or Whether though, so probably age more than regional.
I was trained in speech in school (theatre major) so that may be why despite being younger, there's a definite, though subtle, difference. A slight breathiness on the wh.
my Irish American in-laws were old school New Englanders from the Poconos region. my FIL was first generation Irish American: his ma and da were folks off the boats at Ellis Island.
neither of them spoke with that fricative.
yet i noticed it immediately on Bob Ross. he uses it, ever so lightly in his early shows when he worked harder at hiding his southern (northern Floridian, to be exact) accent.
i think that USian fricative is more regional than generational.
@joyce It’s more the regional dialect I grew up with then a generational thing.
Hard syllables are softened in Southern-like accents, and as much as I tried not to pick up an accent, I still have an accent. 😆
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