To ask you how you say the letter 'H'???

[NowSissyThatWalk]

Okay.
So this may have been done to death, but I am a woman close to the edge.
I pronounce the letter H as 'Aitch', not
pronouncing any 'H' sound at the start.
I have always been told this is the 'right' way to pronounce it, and so it's stuck.
But I seem to never hear anyone ever saying it like this and instead pronounce the 'H', as 'Haitch'.
I can't take much more of it. My DP says 'Haitch' and corrects me every time I don't.
I should LTB shouldn't I????

beau Nope, I'm not a policy wonk. I do have a good understanding of what constitutes discriminatory behaviour from both a cultural and legal standpoint, though.

It's aitch.

It's spelt aitch. It's pronounced aitch. It's really very simple.

Unless you go round saying, for instance, 'happle' and 'humbrella' instead of 'apple' and 'umbrella' then why would you say haitch? Why, why??

I think it's always worse when people add something that shouldn't be there than if they leave out something that should (redundant apostrophes are the other classic example). It always makes me feel homicidal a bit annoyed.

Like a second question mark?

Why would I say happle or humbrella?

Ok then, all you who say "haitch" is correct. Can you also explain why "would / should / could of" is incorrect? Or do you also think it is a regional variation and/or a natural progression of the English language, which should be encouraged and accepted by all means?

I'm Irish, I say haitch. And ore for "r". I have to spell things fairly frequently at work (in london) and constantly remind myself to say aargh like a pirate when using the letter r as people don't understand me otherwise.

I really don't understand how people get so worked up about it, I've had colleagues try to "correct" me which I think is extremely rude.

Pronouncing H as 'haitch' doesn't tend to affect spelling, unlike 'could of'.

Fayk I am sure you wouldn't say happle or humbrella! Nobody would, because it would sound ridiculous - that was my point. So why would anyone say haitch? That's equally ridiculous.

I do apologise if anyone was traumatised by the extra question mark. My emotions got the better of me.

Aitch.
It's even in the dictionary!

So why would anyone say haitch? That's equally ridiculous.

RTFT. The roots of the 'haitch' pronunciation in Hiberno-English have been explained.

What grates me is here in Lancashire some place the letter K in place of L.

E.g. little = likkle.
Bottle = bokkle.
Hospital = hospikal.

I'm from Edinburgh, and I pronounce the letter J to rhyme with pie.

'Why would anyone say haitch? '

I say haitch because I have Irish parents. I guess that makes me ridiculous.

debbie I would hazard a guess that haitch has throwbacks to the Penal Laws and Hedge Schools as it is used as a marker to distinguish a Catholic from a Protestant.

I have read the whole thread. Adding a 'h' sound where there isn't one still seems ridiculous to me.

It's not ridiculous, it's just a regional variation. It's like me saying it's ridiculous that people where I live don't bother pronouncing the letter "r" in their words but add it to words where it doesn't belong. The non-rhotic accent and intrusive "r" sounds very strange to my Irish ears, but it's just another accent. I love hearing differences in speech and pronunciation.

I genuinely don't understand how this can be a regional accent. If you add a 'h' sound to all words that start with a vowel (saying happle for apple etc) then that would be a regional accent. I don't know if such an accent exists, but it may. The haitch thing is just one word pronounced with an extra sound, which doesn't make sense.

It's a regional pronounciation. Hiberno-English differs in several ways to RP. Both differing pronounciations and differing words. Most Irish people will pronounce film as two syllables for example (fill-um). And most will say press instead of cupboard. None of these things are wrong, they are just different.

NEWSFLASH: people living in different places may pronounce certain words differently.

*not all

It makes sense because for a long long time Irish people spoke Irish and had the letter Haysh. Then some Normans popped over for a bit of an invasion and we got introduced to Ole English. Some people spoke both,some spoke one. Over time it sort evolved into Hiberno-English although Irish was still widely spoken. Then there was a bit of a fracas with Cromwell and sure life for the Catholics went to pot after that. They had their lands taken from them, their children were denied an education, speaking Irish was outlawed. Children went to school in ditches and hedges and if they were caught they were killed. Hiberno-English is what was used in these Hedge Schools. After a couple of centuries they allowed Irish to be spoken again but by now fluent Irish speakers were a minority. But Hiberno-English prevailed.

For debbie, a brief history of Hiberno-English and Haitch.

I'm Irish and I say Haitch, as in Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire. But I'm humble.

Nor do I care if someone pronounced Haitch as Aitch. Quite love the differences.

No help

Then there was a bit of a fracas with Cromwell

Surely it was more of a kerfuffle with Cromwell.

Norman's were just Danish Vikings at the time of the Irish invasion. And these Vikings were the type to integrate and ingratiate with those already in power. Strangely, they fought against the Norwegian Vikings greatly assimulated into Irish life at hat time.

'Haitch' was just the norm when I was growing up - in Ireland. I resolutely stuck to my 'haitch' guns until we moved to the US where 'aitch' is the norm. Slowly I am giving up on saying 'haitch' when I spell words because of the Yanks' notorious intolerance to other forms of English besides their own.

Ironically for me, I think of 'aitch' as something a cartoon 'oi guvnor' Cockney would say just before downing a plate of pickled eels and dancing around with a chimney sweep's brush on a roof. I don't associate it with 'proper English' or good education at all.

Kerfuffle sounds harsh (arsh). Fracas is more dancey sword fighting.