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.

Aitch all the way!

it also arrived in English H-less (like humble and herb)

This is why Americans don’t pronounce the h in herb because that’s how the English language was at the time we settled there.

Definitely Aitch.

Haitch is like nails being dragged down a blackboard for me

@CareBear50

Huge connotations in NI. Generally speaking, Catholics say Haitch, protestants day Aitch.

If you want to know someone's background, ask them to spell "hat" lol

That's interesting. My Grandad said Haitch but was second generation Irish Catholic immigrants and grew up in an area where most people were from Irish Catholic heritage.

I think I say Aitch, but I actually don't really know, never thought about it.
Either is fine for me, don't really care.

ON-velope, instead of envelope, though....

Wow - anything else you can find to rub people’s noses in? You decide someone’s race and class on how they pronounce a bloody letter???

Stunned that there is still so much of this crap still going on. So going on from that you would consider me lower class, Northern, friendly but thick if you Heard me spell out the word ‘Hello’.

No wonder Markle can say we’re a bunch of racists with this attitude

Oh - and their religion........

White, middle-class, Jewish. Haitch.

It is aitch and everybody knows that.

What if you’re Irish?

It's spelt Aitch so it should be pronounced that way. Wherever you're from.

I'm not sure I know the difference? Surely it's just an accent thing though? Also are people seriously getting bothered about things like this?!

I work in HR. It drives me potty how many people say "haitch". I think it comes from a fear of dropping our aitches when speaking in general and so people randomly insert one in the letter H

I have watched a video on the different sounds. By having a preference on one of the pronunciations you're just privileging a certain accent. Also I'm fucking cringing at the the thought of all the people who 'cringe' at the wrong pronunciation. Ffs get a fucking life.

Fly - except it’s not spelt Aitch in Ireland. In Hiberno-English the letter is
Haitch.....spelt the way we say it.....which is NOT incorrect.

@Miscella

Fly - except it’s not spelt Aitch in Ireland. In Hiberno-English the letter is Haitch.....spelt the way we say it.....which is NOT incorrect.

It's the English language, though. And should be spelt the English way. As Gaelic words should also be pronounced correctly.

@FlySheMust

What if you’re Irish?

It's spelt Aitch so it should be pronounced that way. Wherever you're from.

This thread is a truly embarrassing read.

Blerg.

No one's talking about Irish (I presume that's what you mean by Gaelic?), we're talking about the dialect of English spoken in Ireland. Where the letter is Haitch.

@Plussizejumpsuit

I'm not sure I know the difference? Surely it's just an accent thing though? Also are people seriously getting bothered about things like this?!

Yes because some people really need more fun in their life.

Scon Scown
Says sez
Mom mum mam
Haitch aitch

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

It's the English language, though. And should be spelt the English way. As Gaelic words should also be pronounced correctly.

Soooooo much ignorance. There are a variety of dialects of English. British-English, American-English, Hiberno-English, etc. They have their own rules. British-English is no more the "correct" one than any of the others. If you are in America spellings like "color," "flavor," "Aluminum" are actually correct and our way of spelling those words is technically wrong. Haitch is correct in Hiberno-English and that has fuck all to do with Gaelic, which is the Scottish language, as opposed to Gaeilge the Irish language.

The language is mine, though. I don't go to Italy and tell them how to pronounce their words.

And it's mine too. You really are being horribly, unacceptably ignorant. It's not actually ok to dismiss other people's official language in the way that you are doing.

Fly - I’m afraid you are making yourself sound very ignorant.

English may be your language however mine is Hiberno-English, it is a distinct dialect and what is ‘correct’ in your version of English is not necessarily correct in mine.

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.

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.