Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I suspect /hup/ is unavoidable if you're going to aspirate the initial consonant.   In other contexts (what, why, wheel) /hw/ is distinct, but /hwu/ is nearly impossible to say or hear distinctly.   It's bound to drop back to /hu/ no matter how hard you try to make it clear.

(Edit: I really shouldn't say aspirate here; it's not the same thing.   But you probably know what I mean.)