The alphabet and 'H'.

[Thatbliddywoman]

So we say
Ay.
Bee
Sea
Dee
Ee
Eff
Jee
Aitch. Except we don't. We say 'Haitch'.
Why?
We make the aitch have its own letter as the sound of the word for it
We don't do that with any other letter. Why H?
We don't say 'wubbleyew' do we, It's 'doubleyew'?
I don't understand it.

@ItalianHat

I judge people who say haitch. It is like nails down a blackboard

So do I, I'm afraid. I know it's a class & regional variation, but to me it just sounds uneducated (that's my class & accent variation).

If someone taught my children to say "Haitch" I'd be incandescent. But such is the way of the world.

FFS. Have you read the thread at all?

It's not just a regional and class variation (and how gross to consider one region or class better than another), but an ethnic one too.

I live in Midlands Ireland, I say Hai-ch, I'm ready to be judged

Haitch and I'm from the north west, pretty sure everybody round here says it that way too.

Also I'm boggled why so many people seem so angry over such a minor difference in pronunciation!

I absolutely judge people who say haitch. Awful. My kids wouldn’t dare. But some of their teachers do! It’s a hyper correction and I’ve had people argue that it should be haitch. I use the same arguments you did OP. We don’t say FEf and wubble you.

What about ‘hence why’ though. Oh my goodness. Goes right to my last nerve.

@MindyStClaire

Honestly the people who get actually worked up about this need to get our more

I never would've got worked up about this before joining MN. But I've been here donkeys now, and the continued sneering at the way Irish people pronounce letters, what we call our mothers or the guy in red who delivers Christmas presents, calling our Halloween traditions "begging", using a derogatory slur for Irish people as a description for tantrums, labelling pretty much every Irish boys name a "naughty boy name" etc etc etc means these things begin to get frustrating and over time downright offensive.

God knows how the American posters feel, they have it even worse.

Apologies, I mean the sneery snobs need to get out more, not the defenders of regional differences

I judge people who judge people who say Haitch - can you make yourself known in real life so I can avoid interacting with you? If you're twatty about Haitch, I'm guessing you have a long list of twatty behaviours I'd rather avoid.

@CooperLooper

Haitch and I'm from the north west, pretty sure everybody round here says it that way too.

Also I'm boggled why so many people seem so angry over such a minor difference in pronunciation!

Because they're better then us haitchers and they just want us to improve ourselves so we can be superior too

@MindyStClaire, yep, I agree. Reading Mumsnet has been a real eye opener from an Irish perspective, and not in a good way.

Who is 'we'? In Britain, traditionally we say 'aitch' - I believe that Australians say 'haitch' and it's probably the influence of their TV programmes which has had an effect.

I say Haitch because where I came from that was what everyone said.

I don't judge people who pronounce it (or indeed any other word) differently because 1) I understand the concept of regional/global differences in both word spelling and pronounciation and 2) I'm not a massive, massive cunt.

To me, the outrage portrays a bunch of people clinging so desperately to their middle-class place in society that they have absolutely no idea how ignorant they come across.

It's amusing to see the lengths people go to convince themselves of their own superiority in this world.

It's all bullshit, you know. Stop being so try-hard because people pick up on that sort of thing.

"Wubble-you" is an absolutely ridiculous argument. It has the word double in it, because it looks like two Us next to each other.

The problem with aitch is that it came from a word with an h at the beginning (hache). But unlike the other French words that came in the same way (herb, hospital) the standard spelling in England came to lose the H. So phonetically it seems stranger to add it back in than a word where it's still there.

It's AITCH and NOT 'h'aitch!

It's both.

Of course if you've maintained the spelling as "haitch" then makes much more sense.

@Miriel

I say haitch.

Someone once told me that the way you say it is a Catholic/Protestant shibboleth, although I don't know how true that actually is.

This is true... Well at least in Belfast. It's part of a long list of unimportant things we like to fight over.

I say 'aitch'. I can't abide people who say "haitch"....why???

[quote Sceptimum]@MindyStClaire, yep, I agree. Reading Mumsnet has been a real eye opener from an Irish perspective, and not in a good way.[/quote]
Same - though this happened for me reading all the Meghan Markle drama, and then posts about the BLM movement, and also trans rights issues. Mumsnet is the home of overt classism, subtle racism, and uncompassionate feminism. But don’t dare try say otherwise.

I used to say Haitch (Irish parents relevant?) until my first job and my boss corrected me. I've never said it since. I have taught my DCs to say aitch also.

I never would've got worked up about this before joining MN. But I've been here donkeys now, and the continued sneering at the way Irish people pronounce letters, what we call our mothers or the guy in red who delivers Christmas presents, calling our Halloween traditions "begging", using a derogatory slur for Irish people as a description for tantrums, labelling pretty much every Irish boys name a "naughty boy name" etc etc etc means these things begin to get frustrating and over time downright offensive
I agree.
It starts with H not bloody A.

I never would've got worked up about this before joining MN. But I've been here donkeys now, and the continued sneering at the way Irish people pronounce letters, what we call our mothers or the guy in red who delivers Christmas presents, calling our Halloween traditions "begging", using a derogatory slur for Irish people as a description for tantrums, labelling pretty much every Irish boys name a "naughty boy name" etc etc etc means these things begin to get frustrating and over time downright offensive.

Lets call a spade a spade here. It's racism, pure and simple. (And yes I am well aware of the argument that white people can't be subjected to racism but the legal definition of racism includes this kind of 'punching down.') We can call it ethnically based prejudice possibly. Either way from a historical context it is 100% a case of 'punching down' and an absolute refusal to see the people of a former colony as being of equal worth and standing. Our ways are not as good as their ways, our way of speaking is like 'nails on a blackboard' etc. It's genuinely disgusting.

My children have picked up "haitch" from school 😭 - my son from a teacher who taught him to mispronounce his surname

Trying to encourage it out of them! I don't mind them dropping Ts or saying TH as F - as long as they CAN say it properly, as it's our local accent. (I drop my Ts when talking to friends but not at work, always have done, it's like having a "phone voice" but for the whole of work!).

But "Haitch" is just wrong IMO!

I use "haitch" and I am from the Republic of Ireland. I now live in NI and the protestant bf informs me that you don't ever ask anyone how to pronounce the word as its sectarian to ask. He says "aitch". I call him a planter and he calls me a bogger. True love.

I’ve never said haitch. Because it’s aitch.