Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩

Common card · No. 353577

The pronunciation of the English digraph ⟨wh⟩ in words like which or whale has changed over time, and still varies today between different regions and accents. It is now most commonly pronounced /w/, identically with the voiced approximate ⟨w⟩ found in words like witch or wail, although some dialects, particularly those of Scotland, Ireland, and the Southern United States, retain the traditional voiceless aspirated pronunciation generally transcribed /ʍ/ or /hw/. The process by which the historical /ʍ/ has become /w/ in most modern varieties of English is called the wine–whine merger. It is also referred to as glide cluster reduction. Before rounded vowels, a different reduction process took place in Middle English, as a result of which the ⟨wh⟩ in words like who and whom is now pronounced /h/. (A similar sound change occurred earlier in the word how.)

Read on Wikipedia