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.
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 Lionarons
Gillinger
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦