Don’t people realize how ridiculous it sounds when they pronounce words that begin with “WH” as if they begin with “H” followed by a “W”?

Since when is “WH” supposed to sound like “HW”?

Let’s look at this in slow motion. “WH” is supposed to be pronounced like the “W” in wet, with and wonder.

This means that words that start with WH are supposed to have the same kind of W sound. The H is silent.

The following words are supposed to begin the way that the W in wet, with and wonder sound:

  • What
  • When
  • Where
  • Why
  • White
  • Whale
  • Wheat
  • Whistle
  • Whine

The irony is that the people who pronounce the above words like hwat, hwen, hwere, hwy and hwite, etc., will ALWAYS pronounce the word who correctly!

None of these ding-dongs ever say hwoo. Go figure! They also never say hwoom for whom.

Gee, ha-wy is that?

Or am I just ha-wining over nothing? Ha-wen oh ha-wen will I stop allowing annoying speech habits to get on my nerves?

How is the name “Whitney” pronounced? Is it Wittney or Ha-wittney?

The perpetrators of this nonsensical interpretation of “WH” usually don’t literally say “Ha” before the “W” sound, but I’m spelling it out that way just to illustrate what’s going on here – for any readers who aren’t sure of just ha-wat I’m getting at.

Whitney Thor’s mother pronounces her daughter’s name Hwittney. It sounds ridiculous. Whitney has a reality TV show, and her mother goes overboard with the HW sound.

There is a Burger King commercial about their Whaler sandwich of white fish meat. The voice-over noticeably says Hwaler and hwite. It sounds absurd.

If words that begin with WH are supposed to be pronounced with the H before the W, then how come this rule does not apply to every single WH word, such as who and whom?

So carried away do some TV personalities get with this, that they’ll take it upon themselves to mispronounce a surname that starts with WH.

Adele Arakawa, a former news anchor in Colorado, once mispronounced the surname Wheelock as Hweelock. Good grief.

By the way, do you ever watch the show “Hweel of Fortune”?

How come these ding-a-lings never say hwolehearted (or “I ate the hwole thing”), hwose, hwoops or hwacko?

Hwoo started this absurd trend that applies to only certain WH words anyways? Hwenever I find out, I’ll hwip up the edit to this post.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t be caught dead pronouncing WH words as HW.