Unmerging a Consonant Pair

June 15th, 2015
ling
Taking a college linguistics course, the professor claimed that the spelling of words was not accessible to the part of the brain that decided how to pronounce them. This seemed unlikely to me, so I decided to start distinguishing words starting with 'wh' from ones starting with 'w'. For example, "whale" vs "wail" or "while vs "wile". This is a distinction English traditionally made, but is no longer common.

When I first started doing this I would screw up sometimes or pause very slightly before saying a word starting with 'w' or 'wh'. Over time consulting my sense of spelling has gotten completely automatic, however, and ten years later I just don't notice anymore.

(The alternate explanation would be that in this time I've just learned new pronunciations for all the common w/wh words, and haven't actually made any connection between spelling and pronunciation. The way to test this would be for someone to put me in a situation to elicit uncommon words like "wintle," "weevil," or "whizgig" without letting me know what was happening, letting me see them written, or giving me time to think.)

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Three cheers for the tomboy chaser

Three cheers for the tomboy chaser!

via Thing of Things January 30, 2026

2025-26 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Highlights include a minimal group house, the usefulness…

via Victoria Krakovna January 19, 2026

Why I Don't Think My Braces Were Worth It

A couple weeks ago, I got my braces off. I kind of wish I had never had them, though. When I was younger, two of my teeth were sticking out, and they looked kind of funny. I thought that my teeth were just fine, and I didn't want to get braces. But s…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts January 3, 2026

more     (via openring)