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 have a tendency to say haf instead of half

😳Is that not the same thing?

The only thing to do is take your money elsewhere - amazed you'd want foreigners to have anything to do with it to be honest, they don't even want to do things properly.

No
Half is apparently more haaf and I say haF (tendency to strong Bolton accent occasionally!)
It's hard to describe it without actually saying it

In the hair washing example I'd say 'it does get manky' - but that's not quite the same thing as 'does be'.

To be after doing something means to have just done it, right? That's lovely and makes more sense than 'just'.

My children have grown up bilingual in Germany with me as their only daily source of English. They've incorporated all kinds of patterns into their English that they've picked up from elsewhere (YouTube, other bilingual friends, all sorts) - 'haitch' among them (my eldest, who's 17, uses that) - and stuff like 'not that big of a deal' where I would say 'not that big a deal'. I love it, and I would love to see what a linguist would make of them. Gives you a real perspective on all the prescriptivist language snobbery on here and elsewhere.

Oh God. I've been saying it wrong too then! Hafpst thrrree.

So..."three thirty" from now on.

Yeah similar to just but more too 😅So you might say I’m after forgetting my keys.

That would be = I've forgotten my keys, then - so like the British English present perfect?

Not really, no. It's stronger with more emphasis on the forgetting part and more recent. Forgotten can be anytime in the past. I'm after forgetting is more I've just done it and it's spilling in to the present a bit too.

Hard to explain. It's a bit like that judge's statement on pornography - I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

Thank you, this is really interesting.
Thinking about it, I read an article some time ago where it was used and from the context it very much could have been either the just-happened type of past or the still-going-on type of present.

I would say...

"I have forgotten my keys" = I don't have them with me.

"I'm after forgetting my keys" = gah, I've just realised I don't have them, hang on while I rummage in my bag and figure out how I'm going to get home.

I don't really use it, but it feels more immediate than just the bald statement of having forgotten them if that makes any sense?

Yes, it does!

@CaitoftheCantii is correct. Only takes a Google search. Google it

The OP most certainly does know the difference between rhoticity and rotisserie, and despite the accusations levelled at me on this thread, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better example of MN snobbery than that comment.

The most interesting thing about the responses for me has been the incorrect assumptions made by certain posters, which include:

• that I’m not Irish Catholic, nor from an Irish Catholic family or area
• that I’m not working class
• that I’m ignorant of the difference between regional/colloquial usage and Standard English and when each is appropriate to use.

These assumptions say a lot about those posters.

Am currently on ‘olyday in Yourup with a lot of Brittish Peepow.

im not brittish myself, but your OP made me laugh about pronunciation.

as we’d say in ireland, take the plank out of your own eye…..

Do you think somebody working for HSBC shouldn't be able to use their own accent or pronunciation so OP - even if they are highly educated and speaking properly and professionally according to their own region's rules?
If, say, an Irish person was employed by them - should they say aitch even though that wouldn't come naturally to them and they would consider it incorrect in their dialect?
Are you really saying banks/companies must only employ people who speak with a certain accent or who come from a certain place - because that does seem like discrimination to me.

Well you've learn't something then. Maybe a little humility and tolerance of others (as well as being able to spot a blatant piss take perhaps).

You are ignorant, there is no such thing as standard English!!!

But if you want to take it up with the University of Cambridge feel free.

@ClaudiusTheGod

You're not Irish Catholic. It's a shibboleth. If you were Irish Catholic, you would say haitch. Or at least have grown up with haitch as "correct", and would never have posted.

What you are is ignorant.

But not all Irish Catholic people say ‘haitch’. Loads of Irish Protestants do say ‘haitch’. It’s not the shibboleth people think it is.

I don't know what the breakdown is to be honest. The majority say haitch in ROI at least and it's considered the standard pronunciation in Hiberno-English. Haitch is taught in schools.

Do you think that an Irish person* should not be allowed work at HSBC without modifying how they say haitch? That's the question.

(* or the Scottish and Welsh people who said they use haitch, or the NI people who do)

Catholic Scouser here - saying Haitch

It's a shibboleth in NI, not ROI. In ROI Haitch is standard and taught in schools. As mentioned up thread, in NI criticising someone for using either Haitch or Aitch would be seen as sectarian.

So you're confessing your OP is simply anti Irish, you didn't mean to be anti Catholic.

That doesn't make you sound better.

Surely as the letters refer to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation it should be however Hong Kong Chinese would pronounce the eight letter of the (western) alphabet.

Say H-aitch down here too. Lived all over England north , west, midlands, south and SE

Always Haitch not Aitch