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’wh’ sound in American English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| chronik Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 6006 days ago 42 posts - 42 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 110 08 May 2009 at 10:48pm | IP Logged |
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In words like where and which, do native speakers pronounce a 'h' sound, like in hot, in the beginning of the word?
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| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6122 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes  22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 110 09 May 2009 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
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Some native speakers in the southern part of the U.S. pronounce it that way. However, for the majority of speakers, the h is silent (i.e., "wh" is pronounced like "w") Edited by JW on 09 May 2009 at 12:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6315 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 4 of 110 09 May 2009 at 3:42am | IP Logged |
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Have to disagree a bit with JW. The aspirated "WH" is more common in the American South. However, it's not universal there, and the aspirated version is not unknown in other parts of the country.
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| thecoffeecake Newbie United States Joined 5679 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes | Message 5 of 110 09 May 2009 at 4:59am | IP Logged |
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the "h" is always silent here in jersey
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| moultrie Newbie United States Joined 5678 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 110 09 May 2009 at 6:08am | IP Logged |
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In my part of the US some people say the “H,” (as in whale) but some don’t. However, I should clarify that you don’t say the “H” sound (like “how”) before the “W” sound, as in “HW.” Instead you slightly blow through your lips while saying the “W” sound.
Also, in the General American accent, some words like “wag” do not use this aspirated “W,” but other words like “whale” do. I’m afraid that the only way to tell which word uses which phoneme is to look it up in Webster’s Dictionary or something. I hope this helps, Bob Edited by moultrie on 09 May 2009 at 6:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Recht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5801 days ago 241 posts - 270 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB1 | Message 8 of 110 09 May 2009 at 9:32am | IP Logged |
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The vast majority of the country does not pronounce the H. You'll be fine just doing
the standard silent H. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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