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.

Have watched the first bit of that video and can hear him saying whaling a few times - does he go on to say Wales later on to compare? I couldn’t sit through too much of it tbh.

flummoxed and yet so certain. Odd.

@EBearhug

Ahhh, I get it now. But at the same time, very, very few English people pronounce the 'wh' should like that. The H is normally redundant.

Well, it just depends on your accent. In some accents it's silent, and in others it's not, and then you can distinctly hear the difference between wear and where for example. If your ear is attuned to it at least.

I say ware-wolf.

@LizzieAnt i was so convinced that the pronunciation of cloth wouldn't be disputed! Goes to show how much variance there can be

True, but I'm Welsh so have a Welsh accent. 🤣

So

where are you goin'? Has the "h" sound.

I'm bilingual als, so didn't learn to read or write in English till about age 8, and Welsh is a phonetic language, so as you can imagine those "h" sounds really are pronounced lol.

Surely you say the "h" in who though?

Or is he/she Dr Woo and not Dr Who 🤣

Im in Newcastle and say sloth to rhyme with moth.

Also the were in werewolf is the same as in beware

I know! It's great isn't it?😁

Where-wolf, but my daughter calls them where-woofs!

Isn't it Dr Hoo?

For me cloth = claw-th

sloths terrify me a little

Yes, me too.

Dr Hoo? I love it! as in the latter part of "Twit-ta-hoo" the sound an owl makes?

He/she is definitely Dr w-h-o in this Welsh house.

Accents are great things aren't they lol.

I'm old enough to remember the American Werewolf in London release and it was already where-wolf then so I don't know how far back you want to go but the 1981 seems pretty far😂

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say weer-wolf. Are you sure it's not just locally to you?

It's "ware-wolf". That's it and that's all!

Also, I pronounce sloth to rhyme with cloth and moth. Northern Ireland here - from a few posts, it seems there are some pronunciation differences between us and the Republic of Ireland just as there is right across the UK.

But it is "ware-wolf" and I'm not accepting anything else! 🙈

the video is embedded in that link is shared about the linguistics stuff.

Londoner, 60+, Where-wolf. Scouser H also says the same.

Where are you from op? I’ve also never hear the ‘weer’ pronunciation

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGJ4rGuUp/

The difference between which and witch.

My husband is Irish and there is no difference in how he says Wales and whales

ok

We-er wolf.

Yes, that sound more or less😅
I've no idea how you say it now. Just tried to google unsuccessfully.