Can anybody tell me the answer to this?

[brassdollfin]

Okay, so the word whinge. I've recently come across it again, which has rekindled my interest in how one pronounces such a word. Is the first part pronounced "win," which generally sounds better to my (admittedly unaccustomed) ear? Or is it "wine," as would be suggested by the addition of the E at the end

Comments

[kyasuriin]

the first part is pronounced 'win', which I only know because I heard it pronounced on a British TV show so don't feel bad! :)

[kyasuriin]

oh and for the record, Melville Dewey (same guy who came up with the Dewey Decimal system) tried to lead a language reform which supported minimalist spelling, making the spelling of words like 'shoe' be 'shu' but it never really caught on. alas!

[brassdollfin]

Alas indeed! Think how much simpler those spelling tests in grade school would have been :)

[plumapen]

'Whinge' rhymes with 'fringe'. Don't get me started on linguistic puzzles, or we'll be here all night. :D

[brassdollfin]

Heh, yup, like I said, I'm the same way. Have you ever sat and just considered how satisfying the word rather sounds to say? I have XD Thanks muchly for the help & insight!

[flyingwild]

This is probably one of the most amusing things I've read in a while (and not only because I ponder the same sorts of things myself!)

Anyway, it is indeed pronounced like "win", and is a fun word that sadly I do not use enough. Mostly because people will go "what does whinging mean?" which is annoying.

[silveriris]

time for the stupid blond, mainly cus its fun to annoy you.
What the hell does it mean?? (I mean i could look it up but ifs far more fun to ask you, lol.)

[brassdollfin]

I was going to tell you to go look it up, lazy bitch (with all due fondness, of course), but then I realized that I could easily have done the same thing, and chose not to. So, for your amusement - from what I can tell, whinge seems to mean something fairly similar to whine. I've mainly seen it used as Brit-slang, or I guess non-American slang, since I couldn't tell you if, say, Irish or Australian people use it as well.

[piccolopirate]

Whinge is with the first part pronounced like 'win'.
Whine would just be pronounced as wine.

:0)

[brassdollfin]

Yes, whine I know. That one is in frequent use here in the States. The whole whinge thing now has me wondering, though... would the Dursley's address in Little Whinging be a form of that same word? Because if it is, I've been mispronouncing it for aaaaaaages.

[piccolopirate]

Hmm...I'd pronounce it like win-ging, so yeah, a form of the same word. I never really thought about it before. :0)