Pronouncing H's

[nothingbutsnow]

Or Aitches!

I love language and dialects, etc, and having grown up around a fairly quaint mixture of rp and regional-to-me accents I can't say that I ever really thought about it very much, nor noticed anyone stringently stress the H at the beginning of every word. Or else I didn't take a great deal of notice.

So take the words 'He was happy for hours and hours', do you stress the H here or not? Or just the first one?

It really alters the rhythm of your voice and sentences (obviously) but I find it fascinating. Equally I find it just as intriguing to attempt sentences in a very local dialect, too.
This made me think that how we pronounce our words has a great effect on our personal 'voice' and even how we use it.

Still, not many H stresses in my peer group, although quite a few older people I know do. To pronounce every 'h' in 'he was happy for hours and hours' slows the speech somewhat (makes it more considered perhaps) and I presume most people now prefer to talk faster! I mean, who has the time to give a damn??

Thoughts on this, do you do it?

Some great replies, thank you.

Yes, it makes sense but it's not really to do with breath, but where the bits and pieces in your mouth have to move to between saying the "t" (which, at the end of the word "without" will be different to the "t" in the word "tea" acoustically) and getting to where they need to be for an "h". If you stand in front of a mirror and say the sentence very slowly, you'll see the movement. Your lips change position at the same time as your tongue moves backwards, and out of the way!

I'm so fascinated by this, am wondering about cadence now. In the north west where I was born it is like many regional variations are shortening sentences as if they are .....economising. For example:

"Will you shut t'door?"
Rather than "will you shut the door'.
Although much of the time it's a minimal alteration, you can 'save' on quite a few syllables per sentence!

And the regional accents here are deeper, stronger, you don't often hear sentences that run like tinkly bells

I would love to read more about this sort of thing, if anyone has any recommendations?
I checked youtube but it's mostly people wanting to learn RP as a second language/students, etc.
Any books on this stuff out there?

My personal favourite accents were in south Shropshire, a lovely blend of Welsh and whatnot.

@Crispynoodle

Allegedly in Northern Ireland you can tell a person's religion by the way they say their H's. You may need to verify this with craicnet!

This is indeed mostly correct. We are Protestant and say aitch, however my son went tona Catholic school, only option for his needs and he pronounces it Haitch. On the whole you can normally tell a person's religion however 🙈

@amusedbush

Someone posting today that they hate haitch/gotten/aks may not be doing it from a consciously classist or racist standpoint. They've been raised to think of those words as incorrect and so their use is irritating.

These comments might not come from a consciously racist/classist place but being taught that it is wrong still displays ignorance.

Especially words like "aks" in your example, which are part of African American Vernacular English. AAVE is its own dialect so we should be moving away from the trope that it's wrong or a mispronunciation.

I know. That was my point.

@Crispynoodle

Allegedly in Northern Ireland you can tell a person's religion by the way they say their H's. You may need to verify this with craicnet!

Yes, that is the case.

Catholic = haitch
Protestant = aitch

@Crispynoodle

Allegedly in Northern Ireland you can tell a person's religion by the way they say their H's. You may need to verify this with craicnet!

An interesting article about this - www.irishtimes.com/opinion/haitch-crime-frank-mcnally-on-ireland-s-most-divisive-letter-1.4368700

@JenniferBarkley

Sorry, I now realise that I read your post and then got distracted (I was teaching via Zoom and the breakout rooms closed, so I had to finish the class). I had copied that paragraph into the reply box but I went off and came back to the thread over an hour later. I replied to your first paragraph in error rather than just adding more information to your post for the thread in general, which is what I now remember I had planned to do.

That will teach me to MN while working.

No worries @amusedbush I'm guilty of MNing while working far more often than I should be

I say haitch because I'm not posh.

Oh how confused a lot of you would be if you ever visited Ireland...

Don't be silly math, no one Irish is posh

American pronunciation of herbs. 'Erbs. Makes me shudder, yes I know of French origin etc, but it gets me. And please don't say 'ickle baby' or similar in my hearing. No. Please no.

@JenniferBarkley

Don't be silly math, no one Irish is posh

Notions

George W Bush says 'nucular'.

I used to know someone who said chimbley instead of chimney.

And someone who said harmones instead of hormones.

And several people who said 'nucular' - actually someone on the BBC news did the other day, I was in awe!

The first syllable of history is stressed and the aitch isn’t silent so it’s ‘a history’.