Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 21:36:06 -0500

From: "Bethany K. Dumas" dumasb[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UTK.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')?



I've been aware for some time that my /hw-/ ~ /w-/ usage is variable; I

think it fits the pattern that DInIs describes (and Garland Bills also

claims) --



Bethany, standard English speaker from Texas