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The digraph wh is used to express a phoneme:
- In the English language, [ʍ] (voiceless labial-velar fricative) the continuation of the PIE labiovelar (formerly spelled hw). Notably interrogative words begin with this phoneme, whence they are also known as wh-words. However, this digraph has usually come to be pronounced as [h] when followed by the letter 'o', as in "who" or "whole". The phoneme [ʍ] has merged with [w] in most varieties of English, a phenomenon known as the "wine-whine merger" in linguistics.
- In the Māori language, it represents /ɸ/ or /f/, with some regional variations approaching /h/ or /[ʍ]/. In the Taranaki region, some speakers pronounce it as a glottalized /w/. The /f/ pronunciation is very common, perhaps due to influence from English.
- In the Xhosa language, it represents /w̤/, a murmured variant of /w/. It is found in loans.
See also
br:Wh (lizherenn)
fr:Wh (digramme)
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