Wycliffe read as why-cliff?

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Type: Question • Score: 13 • Views: 2,775 • Replies: 68

[+4] - Joe Nation - 03/08/2013Of course it proves nothing, I wanted people to hear hHHwhat we were talking about. Joe(heh)Nation
[+3] - Lustig Andrei - 03/06/2013I have heard it pronounced both ways -- Y-cliff and/or We-cliff. Seems to be a matter of local dialect or the person's personal preference.
[+3] - InfraBlue - 03/06/2013Here's a funny take on the pronunciationof "wh-": [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lich59xsjik[/youtube]
[+3] - MontereyJack - 03/07/2013contrex, I think Americans have a different relation to their "h"s than the Brits, since we never, to my knowledge, had an American accent that dropped them, with social consequences, or...
[+3] - izzythepush - 03/07/2013[quote="contrex"] [quote="ehBeth"] yes [/quote] Of course I am! I am bemused that you felt the need to ask. Of course it is hard to tell who or what a person is on the...

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

No...in this case because it is a proper noun (someones name) its is called "Wycliffe" on purpose, because it is named after a person...

Quote:

Wycliffe Hall was established in 1877 by a group of leading evangelical churchmen as a centre for training Christian leaders and is named after the "Morning Star of the Reformation" John Wycliffe."

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Wycliffe_Hall,_Oxford.html

But it is pronounced the same exact way...yes...that is correct...

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I've always heard it pronounced as "Y-cliff" (like the letter Y, not "why")

1 Reply

I have heard it pronounced both ways -- Y-cliff and/or We-cliff. Seems to be a matter of local dialect or the person's personal preference.

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

I've always heard it pronounced as "Y-cliff" (like the letter Y, not "why")

Is there a difference? Don't all English speakers say the name of the letter Y identically to the word "why"? I (know the Queen probably pronounces it "hwy")

2 Replies

@contrex,

If there's a difference, my failing hearing aid is unable to make the distinction.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Don't all English speakers say the name of the letter Y identically to the word "why"?

nope

I hear the w in why. It's likely a regional thing.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

Seems to be a matter of local dialect

word

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

I hear the w in why. It's likely a regional thing.

So do we when we hear "why" - doesn't everybody? I can't imagine a dialect where it is silent - and also when we name the letter Y. When reciting the alphabet and we get to the end, we pronounce 'x y z' as 'eks why zed'. (I know Americans say 'zee').

If you recorded a Brit saying "Why is my beer so expensive?" and then said to any other Brit, "This is the 25th letter of the alphabet", and played them the word "why" by itself, they'd say "yes, that's right".

Are you saying you say Y differently from the word 'why' in some way?

1 Reply

I thought it was "wi-clif as in whittle.

Joe(no?)Nation

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Are you saying you say Y differently from the word 'why' in some way?

yes

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

contrex wrote:
Are you saying you say Y differently from the word 'why' in some way?

yes

Could you explain it in some sort of phonetical way so I can understand how you say it? This intrigues me.

I don't mean how you pronounce the letter Y when saying yard, nor yet when saying baby, I mean when you name the letter.

When I say 'why' it starts like wet, water, wig, wind, and once.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

I don't mean how you pronounce the letter Y when saying yard, nor yet when saying baby, I mean when you name the letter.

I know what you're asking.

We say y differently than why.

You don't hear the wh that you hear in why when we say y.

the closest I can think of is the difference in how we pronounce the beginning of wild and wind - wild is pronounced more like why, the mouth shape at the beginning of wind is more like the mouth shape for the letter y

1 Reply

Phonetically, the pronunciation I've heard is:

w/I/-cl/I/ph.
accent on the first syllable.
Short i in both

Joe(same person pronounce St. John as SIN-Gin)Nation

0 Replies

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

We say y differently than why.

You don't hear the wh that you hear in why when we say y.

OK I understand what you're saying now. These days it is is very rare to hear anyone in Britain (except maybe the aristocracy) say the wh in the word 'why'. We just say 'wy' if I can put it that way. People who take account of the h in their pronunciation are likely to be seen as affected. I have occasionally heard Scots say the wh and one Welshman, Richard Burton, on Jeff Wayne's 'War Of The Worlds", describes how a Martian fighting machine goes 'whirling to destruction'. It sounds like "ha-wirling". These days saying such words as why, where, white, which etc that way would be considered over-pronouncing. Richard Burton was famous for his diction, but it was of another age.

2 Replies

Agree with eh-Beth. The distinction between 'why' and 'y' is pretty subtle but it's definitely there.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Lustig Andrei wrote:

Agree with eh-Beth. The distinction between 'why' and 'y' is pretty subtle but it's definitely there.

It seems to be a regional thing, then, because take it from me, for most UK speakers there isn't even a 'subtle' difference.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

I have occasionally heard Scots say the wh

I saw a comment on a language board that suggested that it was a Scottish pronounciation which would make sense as the part of Ontario I come from was primarily settled by Scottish and Irish immigrants.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

contrex wrote:
I have occasionally heard Scots say the wh

I saw a comment on a language board that suggested that it was a Scottish pronounciation which would make sense as the part of Ontario I come from was primarily settled by Scottish and Irish immigrants.

I must say I personally find the most musical and beautiful English in the British Isles is spoken outside England, in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

0 Replies

Here's a funny take on the pronunciationof "wh-":

1 Reply

Wycliffe read as why-cliff?

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