My speech is -or at least was-fairly neutral. I've lived outside Texas for many years at a time. And while some people have been able to peg me as being from Texas, a significant number of others (including fellow Texans-but also a large number of people from out of state) have asked me why I don't sound like a Texan. When I was 16 and spending 4 weeks during the summer at a National Jewish Camp outside Warwick, New York, in a skit we were doing, they had to pick a non-Texan to play a Texan because I couldn't fake enough of a cowboy drawl. I've always told people that while I was a 4 or 5th generation Texan on one side, in recent memory, my family always lived in large cities rather than in small town Texas.
So the mention in another thread of an escort who wrote his copy in the third person made me think of how I didn't understand at the beginning what the teacher meant by 'person,' but that led to the the memory of when I was in primary school-most likely 2nd grade-and the teacher was discussing the "wh" question words. I remember being totally bewildered when she told us they were pronounced as if they were spelled "hw." I had trouble hearing it. To my mind and ear they all sounded as if they started with "w," and the "h" is silent. Looking at Webster's now, I see that it states the "hw" pronunciation is first. But that the 'w' alone is a secondary pronunciation.
It seems to me when I hear it, that, at least in Texas, the "w" alone pronunciation is predominant.
What about yourselves, and where y'all live?
Oh and what's the pronunciation for these words by native but non-American English speakers?
Gman