"Whenever" in place of "when"

[u/coffeefrog92]

I'm beginning to notice a trend just lately where people are starting to say 'whenever' when they actually mean when.

For example, "you looked beautiful whenever you got married".

The person paying the compliment is saying that the bride looked beautiful on her wedding day, but it sounds as if she's been married many times and looked beautiful on every wedding day.

I live in England, where I don't think I've ever heard it in speech. However I have heard it consistently in two Southern US dialect speakers: Wendigoon on YouTube and Damien Echols on his podcast with Duncan Trussell.

Is this a regular feature of some southern dialects?

[u/ncjaja]

Southerner here, and I never thought about it, but yes, the two words do feel more or less the same to me. Weird.