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?

I do need this explaining sorry. You think HSBC are being racist because they say Aitch in their English head office?

Maybe try reading the op?

The op is complaining that they're wrong for saying Haitch. They say Haitch. Not Aitch.

Yes but the discussion has moved on from them and we’ve actually discovered they say Aitch. Which is correct for them. Someone has them replied to my post saying this saying I’m racist!!

I said work with, not work for. I think not buying from a business that uses a different accent or dialect would be equally embarrassing - and yes, potentially racist if that accent or dialect are from a different ethnicity to your own.

And yes I think that viewing Haitch as unprofessional is racist - especially if you are informed that it is correct in Ireland and continue to hold that view.

Nay there's loads of racism on here. Americans do even worse than the Irish.

@JenniferBarkley I didn't mean just on here. I've just had a belly full of it from Americans and English people in work as it happens. Me with my hard to pronounce Irish name 🙄 that just got the piss taken out of me when they can manage to be so correct in pronouncing other colleagues with non-English names

Dh is Irish and says Haitch, hate it. Just sounds stupid.

Gosh yeah. Good job you're a woman and just unpronounceable. If you were a man you'd be whatever the grown-up equivalent is of a naughty boy.

Well that's unpleasant of you.

Yep and we’re also allowed think that your ‘opinion’ that the way we speak is unprofessional is more than a little out of line.

correct

Wrong

236 posts and 3.5 hours in. Mortifying.

It's always so affirming to have a thread on here show people's true colours.

They've gone back to the other place so they can link and say how unhinged Mumsnetters are. Usual story.

Jesus

well isn’t he such a lucky guy to be married to you.

You should see what he says about you in my DMs...

😂

I have to disagree that it's racist and anti-Catholic for someone to assert that "aitch" is the only correct way to pronounce the letter h.

Even in GB, "haitch" is far more common amongst young people than "aitch". The British Library noted this change in 2010. In a few more decades, haitch will be the more established common pronunciation.

It is this perceived change in pronunciation I think dome are responding to, often under impression that "aitch" was always correct when it originally wasn't. Seems to me this is the more likely explanation.

Indeed, this article by the Independent in 2018 states:

"Shibboleths die hard – the opprobrium in Australia attached to haitch probably derives from its long association with Irish Catholic education. There’s no real evidence for this, mind, as Sue Butler points out, but never let facts get in the way of a good shibboleth."

www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/haitch-or-aitch-pronunciation-letter-h-old-english-a8393766.html

But there's no real evidence opposition to "haitch" is based on anti-Catholic and anti-Irish racism.

Having said that, the article linked makes a very good case for pronunciating h as "haitch" which many posters here will like.

One of the main benefits is children learn how to spell with "haitch" much better than with "aitch". Pronounce as you spell is definitely helpful.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same people rail against the changing pronunciation of "mischievous" too.

Interestingly, while North America retained the "haitch", they never added the h back into their pronunciation of "herb".

The word "humble" was a French word that entered English without an h. It was the English who added h into "humble" as well as "hat".

So, it would be pretty odd for any English language speaker to seriously object to "haitch" instead of "aitch". 🤷‍♂️

Of course not, whether they say aitch or haitch is perfectly fine. It's the people saying the use of haitch is always incorrect, stupid, uneducated, makes them cringe etc - even when they've been told repeatedly it's the standard usage in Ireland - that's the racist bit.

Prods say ‘Aitch and pope lovers say Haitch.

Fact.

Dh is English (Essex) and says haitch. I love it 🤣 but I am Irish. The anti Irish sentiment is alive and well today.

I remember my ExH using whichever one is Irish on a census many moons ago.

he said Haitch, btw. Cos he was from West Belfast.

that didn’t stop him getting a PhD, funnily enough.

Exactly