Do you pronounce the 'h' in words such as 'whip' and 'while' ?

[TheTecknician]

If you do, hwy ?

Seriously, this is something I've noticed in people's speech as I've got older. I'm fairly sure I was taught at school that the 'h' in these and other words was silent but maybe it's not necessarily so. Perhaps it's a matter of regional pronunciation or dialect.

Stevie Griffin says 'coolhwip' in Family Guy.

They sound the exact same.

I used to read The Beano, and Lord Snooty was making fun of someone or other saying 'wot' - the implication was that was how oiks pronounced the word. I asked my mum if there was any other way to say it and she said there wasn't. Lord Snooty also mocked someone's mum for making custard with custard powder, which was how my mum made it. This is how I found out I was working class! Btw, the way the narrator on Netflix's '1883' pronounces the 'wh' sound is wonderful to hear,

They don’t sound the same in most Irish accents, but they have merged in some, eg a D4 accent I think.

I definitely don't have a D4 accent 😂

Well, probably some others too😅

My family moved from England to Ireland when I was in my teens, and was corrected in the second convent school I went to for pronouncing 'white' as 'wight'. The slightly random elocution woman who did the correction drove the point home by pointing out that whales didn't sound like Wales.

I was a bit confused and indignant at the time, but eventually embraced it (I am Irish). I still find it hard to pronounce the eighth letter of the alphabet as haitch, even though that is correct in Ireland and I do try. But people are very tolerant of my linguistic foibles.