Oh hwair, oh hwair, Did wh Come From?

The Enlish diagraph "wh" is pretty familiar to us! It's found in word's like "what" and "who" and "whale". But, why is wh found in "where" but not "ware"? Why is the "h" even in "where"? Why does the wh make "who" sound like (hoo) but makes "what" sound like (wut)? Well to answer these questions, we need to look to the diagraph wh's history!

Grimm's Law

The diagraph wh most likely originates from the Proto-Indo-European consonant Kw (kʷ). This stood until Grimm's Law came about. Grimm's law changed all Indo-European voiceless stops to voiceless fricatives.

(A fricative is a consonant made by pushing air through a narrow channel through the throat.)

Grimm's law changed the Indo-European "kw" to "Xw". This sound is difficult to make without practice, but is made in a similar fashion to "rolling r's". Later, the pre-Proto-Germanic "Xw" was softened to the Proper Germanic "Hw".

Gothic Hwair

The Gothic Alphabet had a symbol for this Proper Germanic consonant. They called it hwair. The Gothic Letter for hwair looked similar to an "O" with a dot placed in the middle of it. When this letter was transliterated into Latin, a symbol of the same name was created to represent it (ƕ). This ligature was used by philosophers in 1900 to replace the digraph "hv".

Old English "hw" to Middle English "wh"

In between the Old English period and the Middle English period, the spelling of the Proto-Germanic consonant changed from "hw" to "wh" BUT it was still pronounced the same. This is evident in some dialects of English today.

Affects on English

Besides the affects previously mentioned, hw/wh did have another large affect on the English language. Because most Proto-Indo-European interrogative words began with their consonant "kw", the wh-movement came into play! This caused most English interrogative words to start with "wh"!

Wine-Whine Merger

The Wine-Whine Merger is a merger that causes hw/wh's to be reduced to a normal "w" sound. This is evident in words like "whale" and "whip". We don't pronounce them like we could (or rather, should) which would be "hWale" and "hWip". Although this merger was created sometime in the 13th century, it didn't become acceptable in speech until the late 18th century.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the digraph "hw" has made many changes in it's long journey to where it stands today, but it has always been in decline. It went from a consonant, to a letter, to a digraph, to an seemingly exact copy of just normal "w".... How long will "wh" stick around before it is either changed back to "hw"...or eliminated completely.

Bibliogrpahy

"Phonological History of Wh." Wikipedia. N.p., 21 July 2014. Web. 21 July 2014.

"Hwair" Wikipedia N.p., 20 November 2013. Web 21 July 2014

#hw #digraph #languagehistory #hwair