I expected someone to do this link:
Brian
Yes, I aspirate for the most part (except for the ‘who’ family of pronouns).
Side note:
When the Leonard Maltin/Richard Bann book on “Our Gang” came out many years ago, I was surprised to see the character Weezer was actually spelled “Wheezer,” and he got that nickname because, duh, he allegedly wheezed a lot. That made no sense to me, as I wondered, “Well. . . If that’s his name, why do all the kids call him “Weezer” instead of “Wheezer,” since it is spelled correctly. I just chalked it up to some regional affectation.
Not to be confused with the “Steel Magnolias” “Weezer,” which was spelled “Ouiser.”
Pronouncing who as hwoo would sound weird to me as well. The others all get the hw treatment.
When I speak a “wh-“ word, the listener generally should have no doubt that transcribing it will require that an h be deployed.
I also pronounce comfortable such that the word “comfort” can be clearly distinguished.
(but I see no reason to spell “h” as aitch.* That’s where it drifts into pretentiousness, in my book)
*except when a crossword puzzle constructor decides to get cute
Stewie’s pronunciation is flawless. Brian is the weirdo in this scene (Stewie’s a little bit of a weirdo, too but only because he’s saying the name of the product so many times. Maybe it’s a product placement deal, where he’s getting paid every time he says “Cool Whip”).
I had to think of how I pronounce it. I think if I was saying something that emphasized the word, such as “are you comfortable?” I would pronounce it the 4-syllable way like you; but if it was one of many words in a long paragraph I was saying, I probably pronounce it as a 3-syllable “COMF-ter-bull”.
How about the pronunciation of ‘caramel’-- “CAR-mel” or “CARE-ah-mel”? I again am not sure when I stop to think about it, but probably most often the first, 2-syllable version.
Care-a-MELLE!
I came across this spelling in a Somerset Maugham story. The context was describing Cockney class distinctions, but he wasn’t being pretentious in the least, just descriptive.
The question “do you aspirate your aitches” is a very confusing way to ask how people pronounce the “wh-” digraph.
Nonetheless it’s been a very interesting discussion. I am from the part of the world that distinguishes “wine” and “whine” AND pronounces the letter haitch as “haitch”. I don’t think it’s pretentious, it’s just how we speak.
It’s not flawless. When Brian asks him to say “whip” by itself, Stewie pronounces it like “wip”
It’s only when he says “Cool Whip” does it come out as “Hwip”
Can you link to the scene? Does Brian ask Stewie to say “whip” or does he ask him to say “wip?”
It’s posted up above. It’s the clip that you were replying about I thought.
As I suspected, Brian asks him to say “wip.”
To me, Brian asked him to say “whip” like the thing that Indiana Jones uses.
Neither spellcheck nor Google recognize Wip as a word. So if we assume he’s not saying actual words, then Brian asks Stewie to say “Cool Wip” and Stewie says it wrong.
Anyways, the one I remember him getting wrong is saying “Whil Wheaton.”
The best part about that clip is the captions on YouTube. They spell it “Hwhip” when Stewie says it.