Pronunciation of werewolf

[PotteringPondering]

When I was growing up everybody pronounced it WEER-WOLF.

Now everybody seems to pronounce it WHERE-WOLF. I'm assuming it's an American thing. But even films with British accents seem to say 'WHERE-WOLF, no doubt for the American market.

I find this odd, particularly given the pronunciation of mere, here, sphere, sincere, adhere, revere etc.

I guess there's also premiere and derriere, but they both come from French words where a grave accent helps the 'air' sound (première, derrière).

The best evidence for the defence is there and where. But I suspect shenanigans going on with the h in both cases, which creates the AIR sound.

If I see an American werewolf round here I'm going to give it a sincere kick in the derrière.

I always thought it was a weirdwolf when I was a kid. Then again I thought sloths were fictional until erm I was ..... daren't say 😂

I'm a Londoner and say wear wolf. DH is from the NW and says were wolf. I've never heard it pronounced weer wolf.

Re "sloth" versus "sloth";

That ms amazing! I love that!

Irish accents pronounce the H in where, whales, whine etc. so it can sound almost like h-where, h-whales etc. In fact when I was reading the OP's initial post I thought to myself 'I'd use wear-wolf or ware-wolf rather than where-wolf as my example, as in my Irish voice I pronounce the H in 'where'.'

Weer-wolf is a new one on me.

According to YouTube, there is no difference between the pronunciation of wine and whine 😁 it's all wine

I've never heard anyone say whuh-ine! In real life or on TV

I think I say weer-wolf.

But sadly I don’t talk about them often enough to be sure.

Well if YouTube says so...

That's true re. the weir-rabbit.

you probably have heard someone say whine or whale or which or whether but haven’t really noticed they pronounce the wh.

It’s a subtle difference when you hear it, but it’s definitely a difference.

It's probably my Welsh accent, similar to another Irish poster.

We tend to pronounce the "h" s in those words as our natural speech and accents.

Where
Who
What
When
Why
Whine
Whales
Whilst

All have the "h" (huh) sound.

Obviously Wales and whales, or that would be a confused nation 🤣

I've always said weer wolf - never known anyone say where wolf

My parents were both Irish and I can’t say I ever noticed them saying Wales and whales differently.

* However, Latin for man is vir pronounced weer so there's a chance that while other languages changed the pronunciation to ware some kept weer 🤷🏻*

I'm still an early learner so don't @ me if I'm way off base.

My Latin is rusty but you're absolutely right about pronunciation.

Vir = weer
Salve = Salway

Etc

I've never heard anyone pronounce it like weer.

Having said which, I've only ever heard ware-wolf.

Not as a 'huh' though, I'm sure! I'm Irish and probably pronounce where and ware the same, unless I was really enunciating the where.

https://oikofuge.com/the-sounds-of-wh/

The difference between a voiced labial-velar approximant (w) and an unvoiced labial-velar fricative (wh).

Also Irish and say ware-wolf. Ware is not pronounced the same as where in my accent (as pps have said already). Never heard it said as weer-wolf here, though it's not a word that crops up a lot to be fair😁

I pronounce it werewolf. Actually in my accent (NW) it sounds like it has 3 syllables - wee-yer-wolf

If you listen to this video about whaling in Ireland you can hear the difference. Think the first mention comes about 3 mins in.

Has anyone seen the Family Guy episode with Brian and Stewie talking about Coolwhip? There you get the w/wh difference.

I used to say weir wolf. When I was about 12 I watched American ware wolf in London and we all pronounced it weir wolf. Both my DC say warewolf though.

I have heard both weer and were wolf.

Completely flummoxed by the wear-where, whales - wales and wine - whine. Whether or not the mouth shape is different when you say each word, the H is silent.

Love this reasoning (though cloth and moth don't actually rhyme at all in my Irish accent).