Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 19:16:02 -0700

From: "Garland D. Bills" gbills[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UNM.EDU

Subject: Re: pragmatic change in progress?



On Sat, 22 Nov 1997, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

I'm a /hw/-/w/ distinguisher; that is, 'whale' and 'wail' are not

homophones for me.

BUT - interrogative why ('Why did you do that?') is always /hw/ in my

speech, and the discourse marker 'why' ('Why, it's on the the other side of

the room') is invariably /w/.

Any other standard speakers out there like me who have this distinction

(not /hw/ - /w/ in general; lots of us old codgers from some places have

that, but this specific sepaation of the two 'whys')?



Why, yes, of course. All us standard English speakers do that.



Garland D. Bills E-mail: gbills[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]unm.edu

Department of Linguistics Tel.: (505) 277-7416

University of New Mexico FAX: (505) 277-6355

Albuquerque, NM 87131-1196 USA