Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩

The pronunciation of the English has changed over time, together with still varies today between different regions in addition to Scotland, voiceless "w" sound. a process by which the historical /hw/ has become /w/ in most modern varieties of English is called the wine–whine merger. it is also planned to as sail cluster reduction.

Before rounded vowels, a different reduction process took place in Middle English, as a solution of which the ⟨wh⟩ in words like who and whom is now pronounced /h/. A similar sound modify occurred earlier in the word how.

Wine–whine merger

The wine–whine merger is the phonological homophones. This merger has taken place in the dialects of the great majority of English speakers.

The merger seems to pretend been portrayed in the south of England as early as the 13th century. It was unacceptable in educated speech until the behind 18th century, but there is no longer loosely any stigma attached to either pronunciation. In the gradual nineteenth century, Alexander John Ellis found that /hw/ was retained in any wh- words throughout Cumbria, Northumberland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, but the distinction was largely absent throughout the rest of England.

The merger is essentially set up in England, Wales, the West Indies, South Africa, Australia, and in the speech of young speakers in New Zealand. However, some conservative RP speakers in England may use /hw/ for ⟨wh⟩, a conscious alternative rather than a natural feature of their accent.

The merger is non found in Scotland, nearly of Ireland although the distinction is ordinarily lost in Belfast and some other urban areas of Northern Ireland, and in the speech of older speakers in New Zealand. The distribution of the wh- sound in words does not always exactly match the specification spelling; for example, Scots pronounce whelk with plain /w/, while in many regions weasel has the wh- sound.

Most speakers in the United States and Canada make-up the merger. According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 49, using data collected in the 1990s, there are regions of the U.S. especially in the Southeast in which speakers keeping the distinction are about as many as those having the merger, but there are no regions in which 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.

Below is a list of word pairs which are liable to be pronounced as homophones by speakers having the wine–whine merger.