So exactly how would the “wh” in “who,” etc. be pronounced? I have a have a hard time envisioning (so to speak) how that would differ from just a “w.” I know Family Guy did a riff on an exaggerated pronunciation of “cool whip,” but wasn’t that sound “hw,” a different sound than “wh”?

Not really seeing the humor in that.

The “w” is there because in the Middle Ages people dropped the “w” sound in other words beginning with “wh” but nonetheless retained it in print (that’s the connecting point that Dr. Esolen implies but doesn’t state), so that for some words pronounced with an initial “h” sound, the spelling was an initial “wh”. That was then extended to words that never had the “w” sound to begin with.

As to what Grimm’s law is, I thought he stated that pretty clearly. For your last point, “Hure” doesn’t mean “pristine condition,” it means “whore” or the like; he just means that the word has survived into modern German without changing from the Anglo-Saxon. I think in the previous entry in this series he pointed out that pristine really (or originally) means “in its original condition” rather than “spotless.” And yes, he is doubtless being witty in associating this with “Hure.”

Meaning, after reading this post, I don’t understand 1) why there’s a “w” at the beginning of “whore” when apparently there’s not supposed to be one; 2) who Grimm is, or what his law is; and 3) why there is a connection between “hure” and some Latin word.

And I also don’t get how German Hure, for “pristine condition,” comes to mean what “whore” means today. Unless the Germans or the Anglo Saxons or someone is being ironic.