Date:  Sat, 22 Nov 1997 23:23:57 -0600
From:  "Donald M. Lance" <engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU>
Subject: Re: pragmatic change in progress?

> (not everything
>spelled wh is pronounced with /hw/, even for folks like me who
>hwinny. WHOA *never* has /hw/, in particular.)
>arnold (zwicky[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ling.ohio-state.edu)

'Whoa' always seemed to me to be woefully misspelled. Since I had known
only horses that neighed, when I read in dialectology about horses that
whinneyed or whinkered I assume they all did so with h's. I seem to recall
that some neighbors had mules that they said whinneyed, with an h-, or
mules in general whinneyed. But I don't remember all that clearly: that
was a long time ago, longer ago than Arnold or DInIs go back to, by a
couple of years.