Whanne

Part of speech: conjunction, adverb

Definitions

1. An archaic Middle English form of when, used to ask at what time something happens ; used to introduce a clause stating the time at which something occurred
2. Old spelling of when, meaning at what point in time ; a conjunction linking a clause to the moment or period in which an event takes place
3. Medieval English spelling for the question word asking the time of an event ; also a conjunction marking the moment at which another action happens

Etymology: Before it was spelled "when," the word was "hwænne" in Old English, and "whanne" is one of the many Middle English spellings that followed. Scribes writing in that period had no standard spelling, so the same word appears as "whanne," "whan," "whenne," and other variants, often within a single text. The word belongs to a family of question words that all begin with the same consonant cluster: "who," "what," "where," and "whether." They descend from a Germanic stem that served as the basis for both questions and the relative links between clauses. That is why "when" can ask a question ("When did you leave?") and also introduce a clause ("I left when the bell rang"). The initial "hw" sound survived in English for centuries. Many speakers still pronounce "wh" as a breathy "h" plus "w," so "whale" and "wail" are distinguished for them. For most modern speakers, the sound has simply merged into a plain "w."