Haitch in HSBC phone message

[ClaudiusTheGod]

Phone HSBC. A voice will thank you for calling Haitch S B C.

This is all kinds of wrong, isn’t it?

Ok....so what do you think it should have been?

Ok....so what do you think it should have been?

Aitch-Ess-Bee-See, obviously. Or are you someone who would insist on pronouncing f as feff, w as wubblyou, etc.?

Aitch

It’s Aitch. Haitch is never correct.

Entirely regional. Haitch is the accepted pronunciation in some areas. HSBC are an international bank so no reason why they should be tied to English Received Pronunciation standards.

It’s incorrect.

People will say it's regional but it is just incorrect to say haitch.

Presumably haitch is regional pronunciation in the same way as happle and helephant.

Ash or hor are correct

It’s Aitch. As in the rapper / grime artist Aitch 😁 (real name Harrison).

Irish Catholic = Haitch.

I also call the rapper dude haitch. More so to make DP roll his eyes.

Does it matter? I can't imagine getting worked up enough about it to start a thread - I probably wouldn't even notice whether they said aitch or haitch, I know what they mean and that is all that counts.

I love the English language and the fact we are supposed to pronounce the H in H 😂

Haitch is a normal Irish Catholic pronounciation

It's a shibboleth. FO with your anti-Catholic/anti-Irish discrimination.

Find it in the dictionary under A not under H.

I am so with you OP

There's no such thing as 'just incorrect' when it comes to the English language. Where do you think these 'rules' come from? They weren't handed down from on high and the preference for 'aitch' rather than 'haitch' in certain circles was arrived at via quite a circuitous etymological journey. And in many ways haitch is the more logical choice and would, for example, help children learning to read.

I say aitch as I was brought up to, but I don't see anything morally superior about it.

If you view language as a means of communication rather than a means to weild 'correctness' over those who may have been raised with a regional accent/slang/colloquialisms, it makes this kind of thing a lot easier to manage.

You knew what they meant, they knew what they meant, no harm was done.

what an awful lot of pompous arseholes. It’s common in Ireland in particular and is a shibboleth as a pp said

It's amazing the intolerance of difference that remains. Haitch is normal from Irish Catholic communities. It's a pretty inadequate form of snobbery to describe it as "just wrong".

They may have even had one of, you know, them doing the message!

Yep. Haitch in this Irish catholic household too.

I loathe it. It should be aitch, which is quite correct. I know there are regional variations, but aitch is how it should be pronounced. As in the NHS. En aitch ess.

I have a H in my name and have always said Haitch when spelling it. I would say Haitch in HSBC too! Normal where I live.

H from Steps and Aitch the rapper sound different to me

Aitch

it is only accepted by others saying it incorrectly