Talk:whilst

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Usage

Chiefly used in British English. Whilst is synonymous with while in standard English, although to many it sounds slightly old-fashioned, and is rare or archaic. In their style guides, modern publications on both sides of the Atlantic deprecate its use (along with "amidst" and "amongst"), for example:

• Times Online Style Guide: [h t t p : // www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2941-583,00.html]: "while (not whilst)"
• Guardian Style Guide: [h ttp :// www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184822,00.html]: "while not whilst"
• Hansard: [htt p:// www.hansard.ca/styleguide.pdf] PDF, the Canadian Parliament record.

Wouldn't dated be a more accurate descriptionm per our current usage? Even that I'm not convinced. There's some resonable discussion on the wikipedia talk page Nil Einne 15:23, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not native, but I know it from reltively recent computer games. (GTA Vice City) - So it shouldn't be dated if it's used in a recent, hard slang-using game - I think. Ferike333 15:50, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

"Amidst" and "amongst" are common in American English, and "whilst" is still very common in Britain, no matter how much newspaper style guides want to get rid of it. Newspapers these days have an unfortunate tendency to want to degenerate and degrade the English language, as can be witnessed by the Guardian banning the use of "actress," and the Associated Press and other newspapers becoming radical leftist propaganda machines and deliberately misspelling words, using incorrect grammar, promoting illiteracy, and creating Orwellian Newspeak—singular "they" instead of "he or she," "undocumented" instead of "illegal immigrant," capitalizing "black" and "indigenous," writing "enslaved person" instead of "slave," etc. — This unsigned comment was added by 2600:1:b105:5eb1:fc48:fbe5:c3e5:f964 (talk) at 20:15, 12 September 2020‎ (UTC).

Oh come off it when it comes to singular they. Singular they has been around for hundreds upon hundreds of years, and it only started to be proscribed when pedants took it up as a pet cause for no particular good reason.

Your other examples are legitimate, although "indigenous" has been a common descriptor for the native peoples to a place such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia, that were later settled by European nations. Tharthan (talk) 03:14, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Pronunciation

The offered pronunciation is, if not incorrect, certainly a minor variant. Whilst is pronounced like "while" with an -st tacked onto the end. This should be corrected. The pronunciation now given would better fit the rarely used "wilst," as in "Wilst thou stop pronouncing whilst incorrectly?" 98.233.11.178 21:08, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

That is for the verb wilst, not for the conjunction. I've made the correction. --EncycloPetey 21:13, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

And what about /ʍ/ in the beginning? Ferike333 15:50, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

It might be present in the UK pronunciation, but that sound is rare in the US. Since I live in the US, I can't say for certain, as this is a rare word. --EncycloPetey 15:59, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

/ʍ/ is, if anything, more widespread in the U.S. than it is in England and Wales (but much less so than it is in Scotland and Ireland). I'm removing the pronunciation with /ɪ/ since I've never heard it and I can't find any dictionary that suggests it. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 09:46, 28 February 2014 (UTC)