Bacon: Reference - Glossary. Æthiopes A term applied to Africans originating south of Egypt and, hence, someone with a black skin. abrogated Repealed, annulled, cancelled, abolished by authority. acatalepsia Incomprehensibility: a term used by the Sceptic philosophers. Online Etymology Dictionary. Hwæt about WH? « previous post | next post » In discussing his recent post about aspirated initial /w/ in Japanese pronunciation of English, Victor Mair asked about the historical phonetics of the strange English spelling 'wh': I've tried repeatedly to pronounce the H part *after* the W and it seems to be virtually impossible to make such a sequence of sounds.
What is it about the evolution of these WH- words in English that has led to this peculiar spelling? Weren't they all Q- words in Latin?