Modern Sound Changes
Modern Sound Changes
Anthologica Universe Atlas / Forums / Terra Firma / Modern Sound Changes / Modern Sound Changes

? Matrix Chronicler of the Myriad
posts: 216
, Conversational Speaker message
Like what the title says. I have one specific thing to talk about, but figured we could maybe use a thread to talk about this topic in general.

The thing I've noticed in various English-language videos by native English speakers is that they sometimes pronounce initial /h/ as either [x] or [χ].

The latest example I've seen of this that spurred me to make this thread is this latest Veritasium video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMb00lz-IfE

Just in the first five seconds, listen to when Derek says "happens". So, I'm wondering if this is actually a thing, if at least some varieties of English are in the process of initial [h] > [x] or [χ].