not to want my children being taught to say 'haitch'?

[cutegorilla]

It really annoys me. Now my 4yo DS won't believe me when I say it should be 'aitch' because his teacher says 'haitch' and so does everyone else (perhaps not altogether surprising if that's what they're being taught).

Go on, tell me I'm being a snob.

Those who say 'haitch' do you say N haitch S? I don't think I've ever heard it said that way. Just wondered .

I have just remembered that someone in our HR department at work answers the phone with, 'hello, haitch r'!

It became a running joke with my daughter when she was a teenager and she'd bring a new boyfriend home. I'd ask the poor bugger "What's the 8th letter of the alphabet?" If he said aitch I'd say "You'll do" but if he said haitch I'd say to my daughter "Are you sure you can't do any better?" She's now 29 and newly single again and brought a new fellow over. She smiled and said "Go on Dad... You know you want to!" When he answered the question she jumped in and said "Yeah, I probably can do better can't I?" :)

It's definitely aitch

Aitch for hotel

A couple of links giving an Aussie take on the subject are
www.abc.net.au/wordmap/rel_stories/aitch.htm
in which the author says (in part) "People have fought wars because they felt superior to others. No one has done it yet on the basis of haitch"
and jbrowley.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/the-letter-h/

And a final thought... as I type this I'm listening to The Corrs Unplugged. I bet they'd say haitch! :(

YANBU.

I am currently fighting the forces of haitch and "them things". Aaaargh.

But Maryz, there are pronunciation guides in the dictionary to assist people with pronunciation queries

YANBU - haitch is just plain wrong.

oh and in the dictionary it tells you how to pronounce it as well

Maryz - as soon as I pressed 'post message' I realised I really like the sound of wubblewoo - but don't tell anyone!

Um, jai and jay - what's the difference? I read both as jay.

its Jie and Jay.

Aha. Thanks.

I'm Irish and always thought saying aitch was a cockney thing (probably because I only ever heard it on EastEnders).
I say haitch. I wouldn't accuse an American of being ignorant because they said zee when I say zed. If you are understood and can communicate what you mean (the point of language?) I can't see a problem.

Can all we with roots in the Commonwealth at least turn our scorn to the cousins across the water and agree that pronouncing the last letter of the alphabet as "zee" is a travesty?

messymammy, I'll cheerfully accuse Americans of being ignorant. Seppo wankers the lot of them! :)

Again, I'm astounded by the double standards of some people on MN.

Why do you give a flying fuck about how people pronounce an aspirant?

What's seppo popparob?
I won't be joining you going in those cheerful accusations. I find that rather ignorant I'm afraid.

You can tell a lot about a person by the quality of dictionary they use.

Really, if your dictionary isn't telling you that haitch is a standard variant used in Ireland, you need to get a better one.

Thinking a cheap dictionary says everything there is to say about how a word should be pronounced marks you out as something of a philistine.

I'm disgusted at some of the racist attitudes on here. As an Irish person living in England I have been having huge difficulties recently with my 6 year old being teased about his Irish accent, the 'haitch' issue being one of the main problems. Rather strangely he is also mocked for saying three with a 'th' instead of 'free'.

We are teaching him to be a tolerant little boys who understands accents, regional pronunciations, colloquialisms, the evolutionary nature of language etc, and would be horrified to hear him dismiss someone as thick or ignorant because of how they speak. I wish some of the parents of his classmates felt the same. On a positive note we always tell him to be proud of his beautiful Irish accent as it generally provokes a very welcoming reaction across the rest of the world.

Buttercup, keep at it. In terms of pleasantness on the ears, an Irish accent kicks a London accent into touch. I'm sorry your little boy is having a hard time simply because of the way he pronounces some words. How ignorant can you get?