CHAPTER 47

Using wh and h

Hundreds of English words use the wh digraph. It usually appears at the beginning of a word and never

at the end. If it occurs in the middle of a word, it will most probably be part of a compound.

(^) .... the board game of draughts is called checkers in North America and the word draught is now spelled
draft.
Spelling rule #1: When the wh is followed by a, e, i, or y, the w is pronounced and the h is almost
silent:
(^) Spelling rule #2: When the wh is followed by o, some of the words have the emphasis on the w, but
most will emphasize the h.
(^) To say that the h is silent in the majority of these words is not quite correct. A large number of English
speakers pronounce these words with a soft, almost inaudible h sound before the w. This is neither an
affectation nor a mispronunciation. It simply reflects the history of almost all of these words and proves
that change can sometimes take centuries.
Our Saxon forebears spelled almost all of these words with the h before the w and pronounced them
that way.
(^) With the upheaval of the Norman invasion, the first two letters were reversed and the harsh initial h
was softened as the emphasis was gradually put on the w. A thousand years later, however, many of us
still pronounce these words in the old way.
Words in which the initial h is clearly pronounced are variations of whole, which did not have a w, or
they are variations of who, which did not change. In some parts of Scotland, who is still wha. Today, no
commonly used English word begins with hw.
Note that the h is a very useful letter. Countless words begin with h, and it can also be found in the
middle of numerous words. As the final letter in a word, however, it is quite rare. If we exclude proper
nouns such as Allah, Utah, Isaiah, and Bar Mitzvah, we are left with a small handful of commonly used
words.
(^) But half of these words have already lost the final h and are now often spelled as follows.
(^) Note that a wide selection of interjections end in the letter h: