Haitch AIBU

[beluga425]

...to want to scream "it's aitch!!!!!!"

FFS

Afaik the letter "h" in Irish is spelled with an "h". (can't remember what it is). The letter "h" in English is spelled "aitch" not "haitch". I don't get the problem. It's Aitch.

@SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace - what about the English people that put r's into words where they don't exist? Drawring instead of drawing, for example. Is that not accent? Why would haitch be any less due to accent?

Yes the Irish H is called 'héis' (pronounced haysh) and this has led to a crossover where most Irish people pronounce the English H as haitch.

Brought up to say aitch but worked in Ireland where haitch was common. It made sense to me especially spelling surname or car reg over the phone as PPs have said - much clearer.

But find it tantalising that in Gaelic/Gallic the h/aitch is there but often not pronounced. Still waiting to find a good guide to Gaelic and how the spelling developed so Ruaridh = Rory and Siobhan = Shivaun etc etc.

Is it not Haitch then? I was taught Haitch.

I used to say haitch until fairly recently when I heard filipino colleagues all saying aitch and realised I'd been saying it wrong all my life.

What I really hate though is when people and business write till instead of 'til. It's short for until so write it properly ! I see it loads on businesses "open 8 till late".

H is a bit of a funny one in Irish. It's a modem importation that is used to replace the seimhiú, which was denoted as a dot at the top right of the preceeding consonant. It's also used as a prefix for certain words beginning with vowels (e.g. na hainmhithe, which means the animals. Ainmhithe is the word for animals, the h is a modifier). The only words that start with a h ( as far as I know) are those of foreign origin, like háta, which means hat.

@milliemolliemou - dh and bh are specific sounds. For example, bh is pronounced v, so it's not that the letter isn't being pronounced, it's that the combination of letters result in a different sound, similar to the way ph is pronounced f in English

Aitch is the name of the letter H. It has nothing to do with the sound of the letter. Aitch does not begin with h so it is pronounced aitch.

"It makes no sense that "haitch" starts with H. F, L, M, N, R, S, W, and Y all manage not to start with their letter sound. I have never heard anyone say their alphabet and get to "Feff, Gee"."

Thank you, MarklahMarklah!
I was going to post the same thing, but now I don't have to.

Aitch does not begin with h so it is pronounced aitch.

Yeah, unless you live somewhere where it's pronounced differently would you correct a German person for pronouncing it 'ha'? It's the same letter in the same alphabet.

Still waiting to find a good guide to Gaelic and how the spelling developed so Ruaridh = Rory and Siobhan = Shivaun etc etc.

What do you mean how the spelling developed? You realise that Irish is a language, it's isn't "English with an accent" it predates English and the Rory/shivaun you have used are anglicisation of another language. The Irish didn't look at "Rory" and decide to spell it weird!

I completely agree with those of you saying the pronunciation of a letter does not necessarily have to start with the letter sound. However, that doesn't mean it can't be pronounced differently depending on accent.

Draw pronounced drawr is an example of a word that can be pronounced differently depending on accent. Why should h be any different or have a special status that means it can only be pronounced one way?

Haitch is not "wrong". It's a regional variation used by AT LEAST 25% of the UK population (at last study, and estimates suggest it's on the rise in younger generations).

This fucking thread again.

I say aitch, Irish people say haitch. It’s really not the big deal everyone’s making it out to be. No-one is ‘wrong’, language is a fluid and flexible tool.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/aitch

What I really hate though is when people and business write till instead of 'til. It's short for until so write it properly ! I see it loads on businesses "open 8 till late".

I'm afraid you're completely wrong. Till is the correct and original word. 'Until' is a more recent word derived from 'till'.

People ignorantly thinking that 'until' was the original word started using spelling 'til as a shortening but its nonsense.

@InsomniacAnonymous The same dictionary says that "bath" should always be pronounced with a long "a" ("bahhth"). Does that mean that everyone who pronounces it with a short a ("bath") is wrong? Nope - it's a regional variant that the dictionary doesn't account for because their pronunciation guides are based on an RP accent.

DD's teacher last year said Haitch, and as a result DD did too. I correct her every time because it drives me potty

millie so in a nutshell Irish people spoke Irish and had Irish words and names. The English came over and anglicised everything because... well...that's what they did. 800 years of oppression and torture later Haitch has prevailed in spite of those who literally beat the Irish out of us.

It's purely just to piss the snobby ones off.

Haitch Abú

Exactly, Perry.

@sqoosh -

'Till is the correct and original word. 'Until' is a more recent word derived from 'till'.'

Interesting Goldfish. I had no idea.

I see these threads all the time .

But still have no fecking clue what your all going on about

theymademejoin my DC say hata and mala (can't do fadas) and lots of other scattered Irish words.