Haitch

[Polidori]

I seem to hear this more and more. There's no such word as haitch. The eighth letter of the alphabet is called 'aitch'. It's not a question of region or opinion, it's just wrong. Aitch is in dictionaries. Haitch isn't.

So while (quite wrongly) accusing me if thinking I get to decide, you are yourself deciding that the dictionary is wrong??

Quite right Mark. You can say Aitch with any accent you like without sticking an H at the beginning of it!

You seem to be rather touchy on this subject - I was being lighthearted! No, the dictionary is not wrong but language is evolving all the time. Pronunciations in a dictionary from 50 years ago are not necessarily the same as the ones in there today. Here is an article about how it is becoming more and more popular as a variation (and will probably be standard and in dictionaries in the future).
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11642588

Dd's reception teacher says 'haitch'. There is no telling dd now, Miss James says it. She can do no wrong in dd's eyes

Oh spare me! Every misuse of language is defended by someone trotting out "language is evolving..."!

It may not appear in your dictionary but it does in mine.

books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=uPo0oB19gDUC&q=haitch#v=snippet&q=haitch&f=false

I would be challenging miss James to teach my child correctly

It's a absolutely AITCH

I do not particularly like haitch, but people will speak the way they speak. What I really fucking hate is when haitchers correct my aitch.

Your dictionary confirms that it is aitch in standard English. I could link to all sorts of funny things in dictionaries of Geordie English or Brummie English but that doesn't make them real words

Oh god yes carrots, that's unbearable

Irish mum. Brought up in Ireland. Says "aitch". As do I.

Look OP. You can find it irritating if you want, we all have our bugbears. But that doesn't make it wrong.

I find non-rhotic pronunciations irritating (the things some English do to the letter R!) but I acknowledge that's a difference in accent and dialect and move on.

No, you're right. That doesn't make it wrong. But the fact that haitch isn't a word does make it wrong. It's messing with the spelling as well as the pronunciation. Whether you rhoticise or not, raspberry is spelled raspberry. But if you say happle or horifice or hagony you're just making up words.

This is in Pedants' corner, not AIBU . Be as pedantic as you like, op. Only saying that' cos I agree with you

Thanks Radishal!

You are right OP.

Well then I can be pedantic and point out that OP is criticising a valid dialectical difference. And, as has been posted above, one that is used to discriminate.

I say haitch always have always will.. YOU can know I'm wrong all you like. I know the letter is called aitch though 🤷‍♀️

So, Liv, if its used to discriminate we'd better keep it then! As that's so important.
If it was dialect then it would be limited to one area. Many (but not all) people in England say it. Many (but not all) people in Ireland say it. It simply isn't regional.

It was regional but is now spreading especially among younger speakers. You may not like it but that doesn't mean you can stop it!

Ooooh a political pedants thread, at least that's the connotations in Northern Ireland.

You understand that it's used to discriminate against people because of their religious or cultural background and you're ok with that?

Disclaimer: I say aitch.

OP there are a million threads on this already.

It is established on these threads that, in Northern Ireland, one of the ways of telling a Catholic person from a Protestant is their pronunciation of the letter 'h'.

Both pronunciations are acceptable.

It's haitch in Ireland because it's a crossover from the Irish language where H is called héis, pronounced haysh.