Pronunciation of werewolf

[PotteringPondering]

When I was growing up everybody pronounced it WEER-WOLF.

Now everybody seems to pronounce it WHERE-WOLF. I'm assuming it's an American thing. But even films with British accents seem to say 'WHERE-WOLF, no doubt for the American market.

I find this odd, particularly given the pronunciation of mere, here, sphere, sincere, adhere, revere etc.

I guess there's also premiere and derriere, but they both come from French words where a grave accent helps the 'air' sound (première, derrière).

The best evidence for the defence is there and where. But I suspect shenanigans going on with the h in both cases, which creates the AIR sound.

If I see an American werewolf round here I'm going to give it a sincere kick in the derrière.

Werewolf as in aware.
Sloth rhymes with both.
Just proved I'm old.

Same here, so more like weer-wolf than the Germanic version. West Midlands (black country) origins.

It was always weirwolf for me growing up. And slowth.

Yes I pronounce it WEER wolf. Also pronounce lorry as LURRY & project as PROH-JECT. I'm from Manchester.

Ha! Gratifying to see my thread from early July is emerging from its slumber and howling at the autumn moon.

Wear ( as in clothes) wolf

@PotteringPondering what a fabulous thread! I intend to scrutinise it in detail.
Wear-wolf.
Sloth like moth.
Yogurt like yogut.
Scone like gone I'm never sure of this one, sometimes scone like stone.

Can I throw in a wondering of my own?
Almonds - ah-monds or al-monds?

Kudos to you for a great pedants thread!
Now, is that cue-dos or coo-dos or cue-doz or coo-doz or cue-dose or coo-doze? Hmm? 😬

Almonds? Oo, heck. I say OL-monds, kind of like the Osmonds but with an l.

I expect people will now say that's as eccentric as my weer-wolf. Who knew my pronunciation was so niche?

It's always been weer-wolf in my experience all 54 years of them:)

Maybe a north/south thing.

I grew up in North East. I recently listened to a BBC audiobook which featured a tale about a werewolf. The narrator was from Yorkshire and they also pronounced it weer-wolf.

Ha! Thanks for resurrecting my ancient thread about werewolves. It gives credibility to the old adage about werewolves being hard to kill off.

My own roots are northern, so you may be right to suspect a north/south thing. I still say weer-wolf (or at least I would if I ever had to say it out loud).

Interesting!

For me:

Ware-wolf, but weir-rabbit.

Sloth/cloth = mammal
Sloth/both = vice

Scone is same as sconce

Yoghurt = Yog-ut, with barely a vowel in the second syllable

Almond = Ahmonds

PROH-ject = noun, pro-JECT = Verb