What the...??? Is it an episode dedicated to all thing dubya? Why yes: in this wepisode, we, Phiw and Ewic, wallow in what is well-know to be one the the most wonderful consonants in English, nay, in the world. We tackle such topics as Voiced Approximants and Voiceless Fricatives, especially labio-velar ones. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, Eric's recording stopped half-way through, and so we had to re-record the end of the show. This proved to be a good thing, we believe, making the show about 20 minutes shorter, and far more concise (never hard for us to be more concise)!

Show notes:

w = Voiced Labio-Velar Approximant

ʍ = Voiceless Labio-Velar Fricative

Note that some people transcribe the Voiceless Labio-Velar Fricative as
/hw/.

About Approximants: Peter Ladefoged in Vowels and Consonants

compares "wet, yet, let, ret(ch)"

w- rising 2nd formant (so it's like /u/ )

j - falling 2nd formant (so it's like /i/ )

l- minimized 2nd and 3rd formant, sudden switch to the vowel

r - lowered 3rd formant (similar to /w/, otherwise)

r, w and j are syllable-initial only (assuming that /r/ at the end of syllables is vowel! )

/hw/ dropping is called "Glide Cluster Reduction" Wells p. 228, differentiated from h-dropping

2 ways of looking at it: Phonotactic change (reducing the cluster from
/hw/ to w) as opposed to a systemic change (losing the phoneme ʍ).

Wikipedia: Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters, and vowel sequences by means of phonotactical constraints.

Note the h-dropping on liquid u as in human, humanity (as we discussed in Episode 10) is also a form of Glide Cluster Reduction. Also note that it is argued that humour [jumə] based on its French roots is archaic, and different from others.

Approximants are "the opposite of stop consonants in that they do not involve any kind of closure of the vocal tract. Instead, there is simply a narrowing at some point. For /w/, the lips are close together and the back of the tongue is raised, but air still flows freely out of the mouth." p. 52, Ladefoged Vowels and Consonants.

Semivowel is a momentary approximant--J.C. Catford's A Practical Introduction To Phonetics p. 67

When preceded by a voiceless stop, you can get ʍ, more or less...

1. pw- puissant, puissance, pueblo
   

2. tw- twill, twilight, twin, twain,
   

3. kw- quit, quite, quaff, quail
   

4. skw- squeak, squeal, squeeze, squib, squint, squirrel
   

Non-ʍ "wh" spellings:

1. who, whom, whosoever, whomever, whole, wholesome, wholly, whore, whooping, whose
   

/hw/ often dropped in weak forms of which, when, why