Do you pronounce “where” identically with “wear”? One of my favorite jokes is the one about the American who overhears two hefty women talking and asks them “Do you ladies come from England?” and they answer “Wales” so he corrects himself and says “Sorry. Do you whales come from England?” This is a sexist, fat-shaming joke, so I shouldn’t laugh but I do, and the whole premise is based on Americans making no distinction between the aspirated “H” and the unaspirated “H.”
Do you pronounce “why” the same exact way you pronounce the river Wye? Does it seem affected to do so? I’m not sure if I say “What?” as if it were spelled “Wot?” It’s a subtle distinction, though I’m unsure if most people perceive it as a distinction at all.
W and wh are identical to me and it does sound pretentious to say them differently. Like the post above, it always makes me think of Stewie Griffin making fun of that exaggerated pronunciation.
As I’ve mentioned in other threads, I was taught in 2nd or 3rd grade, or thereabouts, that “w” and “wh” should be pronounced differently. If I ever followed that instruction, I don’t anymore and haven’t for a long time.
As a graduate from a fine-arts acting school, pronunciations like these (including the Mary != merry mentioned above) were hammered into me over several years of speech training. If it makes me sound pretentious, too bad.
