Shitty editing, but makes the point early.
It turns out that the "H" in "what" was pronounced exactly the way Rip says it, and you were considered to be uneducated if you pronounced it "Wen."
Joss Fong Montage - YouTube
Shitty editing, but makes the point early.
See, that's exactly HWhy all of us have started saying it that way.
It wasn't to make fun of Rip.
Honest.
It was just to be more phonetically correct.
Because if there's one thing Rip has done for us, it's to get us all Hooked On Phonics.
I know this is all fun and games and I'ma let y'all finish, but that's not how language works. Rip is neither right nor wrong because those terms simply do not apply to dialects, sociolects etc. So people in Rip's neck of the proverbial woods will have a larger propensity to emphasise the "h" in the "wh"-compound, as will people in some other parts of the English-speaking world. Just like some people drop the "r" except in front of a vowel, but only in some parts of the English-speaking world. So not right, not wrong.
And a damned good thing, too. I can't imagine what the line in the "how to drop the bar in the clean" video before Rip kicks the monkey would sound like if Rip didn't emphasise the "h" in the "wh"-compound.
First Worlds Problems
Cool hhhWip.
I think what you're trying to tell me that language changes over time, but that would be a completely outrageous statement to make. Hence I can't ever take anything you say seriously anymore.
Sure, but language doesn't work with right or wrong answers. What once was, may no longer be. Picking a date or place is completely arbitrary. The contemporary grammars all focus on describing how people talk, not prescribing people rules on how to talk. It's a bit more complicated than simply "peer pressure and aping each other", but that's essentially what's going on. Feel free to let the Hs ring true cos there's no reason to not do so other than being raised in a different environment where people don't emphasise the "h" in "wh" compounds.