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.

'Come on a thread'

Does that sound quite correct?

I noticed yesterday that my 3 year old says Aitch despite not having been taught the alphabet yet, and despite me sometimes slipping up and saying Haitch. He was asking for HP sauce

Mum?

I once read that the "haitch" pronunciation originated when teaching children the alphabet in areas where dropping Hs (e.g. 'ello). They changed it from "aitch" to "haitch" in those cases to try and train them to pronounce their Hs.

People who are too prescriptive about pronunciation don't understand language.

When do you actually encounter it though? I mean unless you are doing ABC's with a child, are there many opportunities when you would hear it?

NHS. HSBC. HIV. HMV. etcetera.

Haha yes who says N haitch S ??

Actual people!! I can't believe they can be bothered.

I'm Irish, it's accepted and taught in Ireland. As others have said it really doesn't matter, but it seems to get a lot of backs up in England.

aitch is correct. People who say haitch are 25 years old and wear shiny suits to work.

Phew! We can close the thread now. After 86 posts, derxa has settled the debate with a compelling argument.

I know. I'm glad you like it.

Can someone PM me when PC goes back to being full of intelligent, informed people up for a discussion on the nuances and subtleties of the English language, and not this recent, rather infra dig "nerrr nerrr, gavel, thicko, fnar fnar AIBU" style takeover?

It didn't use to be like this

I do find it curious though, that a misplaced H can send someone over the edge, and yet their own SPaG/punctuation leaves much to be desired.

Ain't that the way

Well said, Vintage.

Genuine question: should it be "It didn't use to be like this" or "It didn't used to be like this"? And what's the grammatical concept at work here?

The base form of the verb is "use to" but because we only use it in the past, by definition, we only ever see "used to" or "didn't use to" - because invariably we see "used to" more than "didn't...." the D sticks in people's minds, I've often seen it in print too.

Another geeky peculiarity of it that I love telling my students is the pronunciation- the verb "use" as in "I used the pool this morning" - the "D" is pronounced as a D, but in "used to swim in the pool" it's a T. Likewise, the S of "used" is pronounced as a Z while in "used to" it's an S.

Takes up a good 15 minutes of lesson when I tell the kids they are two completely different words and they have to find me 2 differences!

So the verb 'to use to' is not the same as the verb 'to use'? And it can be 'used to' or 'didn't use to'?

Mind blown. Officially.

I've never thought about it, and quite possibly have made mistakes.

I keep typing replies but look very pedantic but I suppose we are in pedants corner. This thread is going to run and run. I think officially it is aitch. I was going to talk about h sound and the organs of articulation used and the difference between hh and h but we are going into totally different territory. So I won't . Say what you want people.

Anyone who insists on linguistic 'correctness' is no linguist at all.

First thing I learnt when I started studying linguistics.

Anyone who insists on linguistic 'correctness' is no linguist at all. I agree entirely but I still don't like 'haitch'. However we will have to get used to it as it takes over. Very interesting about 'haitch' as a shibboleth. RC Glaswegians pronounce the 'air' in fair differently to Protestants in my experience.

It's possible to understand intellectually the concept of language shift, evolution, and dialectal variations while still personally finding dialectal variations that are not used in your idiolect (or wider group for that matter) uncomfortable. Hearing 'haitch' is to me like nails on a blackboard or very bad singing - it's almost a physical discomfort. I feel the same about non-standard past tenses. It's an out-of-key 'wrongness' like listening to the wrong note in a chord. Just as I'll never myself use 'gotten' or 'bring' instead of 'take' I'll always think 'haitch' is wrong despite my objective understanding of language.

So would I. It was a joke by the way.

I'm not Glaswegian but went to U of G.
RC fair = fer
Prot fair = fayre

I may be completely wrong though.