Sometime ago I expressed puzzlement over the fact that “I” is capitalized in English. Budarick, being Budarick, has put “i” in small letters ever since. I get a kick out of this.
I simply cannot spell that as anything but “htat.” That is just how my fingers hit the keys. But that leads me to the realization that I keep spelling “what” as “hwat.” It occurs to me that that is the way it is pronounced. Even the most fluent of people whose native language is not English have trouble with pronouncing “Whitaker.” It looks like it should be pronounced W–HITAKER. That is hard to say when you are speaking quickly.
Whitaker, of course, is pronounced hwitikker, just as what is pronounced hwat.
If anybody cares about the technical side, the reason for this is that the original Saxon had a lot of gutterals, like the ch in “loch.” When you see gh in light, it is because it used to be pronounced li(gutteral)t. In German it is Licht because German has changed the gutteral to ch.
Whitaker and what used to be what were originally pronounced )utteral) ittiker and (gutteral) at. If you make the gutteral, you will find your lips start with a w or u shape.
So what is right? Hwat is right.
#1 by joe rorke on 07/24/2006 - 6:26 pm
Not Spam. Not Spam. Not even thinking about being Spam.
How could anybody fail to correctly pronounce Whittaker? The fine Irish lass that happens to be meinem Tochter is a Whittaker. Oh and a sweet lass she is. I have all I can do to convince here that her heritage is one she should hold in high esteem. Forsooth! Methinks the schools got the better of her having persuaded her that all races are equal. I suggested she take a second look and a third and a fourth and a fifth. It’s amazing how brainwashing works. Who would want to mix a fine Irish lass with a bucket of dung? It’s happening every day. Well, sorry, but it is. Until it comes to an end.
#2 by Pain on 07/26/2006 - 9:34 pm
KEIN SPAM
Alright, this is one my little pet peeves. The ‘ch’ in loch is not a guttural. A guttural is a sound that comes from the back of the throat, like many Yiddish and modern Hebrew words. The ‘ch’ is a “palatal fricative,” meaning it is formed towards the front of the mouth. It is a soft ‘k’ but a little further away from the throat.
The idea that German is guttural seems to have come about during WWI in the popular press. Even back then the popular press was largely controlled by those speaking at home a genuinely guttural language.
By the way technically speaking, the French ‘r’ is guttural but the French were not victims of the press in that war.