'what' as 'hawt' & 'r' as 'rr' in Spanish Thanks

Question

0 I sometimes hear people say the word 'what' like 'hwat'. Also, from time to time, I hear people pronounce words beginning with 'r' like the way they pronounce 'r' and 'rr' in Spanish. i.e. they vibrate their tongue.  I wonder if they had pronounced them incorrectly. Thank you.02br02br00Best wishes,02br02br00Peaceblinkfriend 0-

Marvin A. · Accepted Answer

0 Hwat for what is the original pronunciation and was the only form used in Middle English. In Modern English, many dialects lost the wine-whine distinction, and began pronouncing words spelled "wh" as simply "w", rather thn "hw". The original, conservative form is still around, and is considered standard in certain areas. In North America, many Southern accents preserve it. Elsewhere in N. America, it has almost completely died out, except in older speakers. However... people often hear others using it, and hear that it sounds old-fashioned and a little bit more correct, and thus add it to their own speech. I remember myself adding it to my speech for awhile. However, I've given up the habit. My grandpa has it, but I can tell that he must have consciously added it to his speech, and it is not a relic form, because he occasionally hypercorrects-01del~~00he sometimes pronounces words like "wine" as "hwine". So, it is sort of similar, in the way that people add relic forms to their own idiolect02del~~00-sort of like "ahnt" for "aunt", which only natively exists in New England, and certain cultural dialects but people all over North America have added it to their own speech, because it sounds very cultured--that is how many pronounce it in Britain, and because it allows you to contrast it with the word "ant". Also, unlike the cot-caught merger, or the pin-pen merger, people can hear the difference between "wh" and "w", even if they have merged them. People with vowel mergers, such as the cot-caught or pin-pen mergers, cannot normally hear the difference between the two vowels at all and thus do not notice people that do distinguish them. They simply assume that it is another case of English spelling that spells two words differently but they are pronounced the same way, like meet and meat. Thus since they can't hear the distinction, they do not consciously add it to their speech, unless someone else points it out to them, and demonstrates the difference to them. I can't hear a difference between cot and caught for example (well, now I can, sort of, because I have learned to distinguish them if necessary), but I can hear the difference between "wine" and "hwine", or "wat" and "hwat".02br
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00Some Scottish, and Irish dialects, as well as some others have a Spanish "r" sound, rather than the retroflex "r" used in General American English. Conservative Received pronunciation used to pronounce r's between words as a flap.0-

Peaceblinkfriend · Answer

0 Thank you for your detailed explanation, Mariven A. I appreciate it. 02br
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00In a nutshell, people generally choose to pronounce words like "what" as "hwat" due to its formality and originality it suggests, right? I am sorry that I don't really comprehend what you mean by the last sentence. I mean what does '01b00Conservative Received pronunciation02b00' and 01b00' r's between word02b00s as a 01b00flap02b00' mean? 01b01i00Conservative Received pronunciation used to pronounce r's between words as a flap. 02br
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02i02b00Thank you for your help again.02br
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00Best wishes,02br
00PBF0-

Marvin A. · Answer

0>> Conservative Received pronunciation used to pronounce r's between words as a flap. <<02br
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00Conservative Received Pronunciation is the dialect that used to be the standard, formal, educated, upper-class dialect in England. In this dialect, r's between vowels are pronounced sort of like in Spanish. 0-

Peaceblinkfriend · Answer

0Ah, I get it now. Thank you for explaining that to me, Marvin. 05002br
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00Best wishes,02br
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00PBF010id1

'what' as 'hawt' & 'r' as 'rr' in Spanish Thanks

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