Saying haitch.

[Chunkymenrock]

I almost never hear anyone saying aitch anymore. It's so infuriating! There is no such word as haitch. Am I alone in feeling so irritated? 😕

I grew up saying it because it’s standard in the dialect spoken where my family’s from. I carry on saying it because people getting all Hyacinth Bucket about it doesn’t seem like a great reason to change.

Three posters from Scotland in this thread , each telling us how it's pronounced there....thing is, there were three different versions - aitch, haitch, itch !!!

Imagine calling yourself a pedant and being so ignorant about language. How embarrassing.

I could swear I read on here once that haitch is older, it's Norman or something.

Anyway, yes, haitch is correct (as is aitch, imagine, TWO correct pronunciations, my heavens). See also gotten, Halloween, Santa etc. The English speaking world isn't just SE England, and SE English usage isn't the only correct usage.

@Chunkymenrock

How can it be correct? It might be said by the majority of the population but that doesn't mean it magically becomes correct.

I agree with you, although it would now appear that once something is used often enough it does become correct. 'Literally' is one example that became validated by the OED to mean nothing of the sort iirc.

Because there's more than one area and accent in Scotland, surely? Just as there are different accents and pronunciations across England?

@Chunkymenrock

How can it be correct? It might be said by the majority of the population but that doesn't mean it magically becomes correct.

That is how pronunciation works, yes, unless you’re still fighting the good fight against the medieval Great Vowel Shift.

I was brought up to say aitch.
My dm always says there is no h on the aspirate.

Saying aitch is my preferred pronunciation but i accept that this is a hangover from the French.

Haitch is more logical but for me and many others aitch will always be more socially acceptable.

I am not posh and say aitch

Haitch is more logical but for me and many others aitch will always be more socially acceptable.

Look, I know you don't mean it like this, but please be aware that what you've said is "the way I say something will always be more socially acceptable than the way Irish, Black or Catholic people say it". Snobbery like this can have some very unpleasant undertones (or often just, tones).

Hear hear, @MindyStClaire.

Buttons294749

“I am not posh and say aitch”
Me neither, but I’m getting old!

@MindyStClaire

Haitch is more logical but for me and many others aitch will always be more socially acceptable.

Look, I know you don't mean it like this, but please be aware that what you've said is "the way I say something will always be more socially acceptable than the way Irish, Black or Catholic people say it". Snobbery like this can have some very unpleasant undertones (or often just, tones).

This.

It’s not even an undertone. It’s a straight out judgement based on the way certain ethnicities and social groups say haitch/aitch.

How many people who object to ‘haitch’ also object to ‘rooves’? Genuinely asking.
RP obviously does change, but it’s interesting how certain changes inspire more furious resistance in the old guard than others.

Yes. It didn't seem fair to accuse the OP of being a Little Englander - this is pedant's corner after all, never mind that she's Welsh! But haitch as less "socially acceptable"? Can you really read this thread and come away with the conclusion that anyone using haitch is socially inferior? Or maybe you are referring to how others will perceive you if you use it?

(I do get a bit like that when I'm in the UK, and I like to blend in, so I tend to talk about the EnAitchEss there but the HaitchEssEe in Ireland. Really I need business cards with a little footnote - "fear not! In Ireland haitch is socially acceptable").

@TheBraveLittleTailor

How many people who object to ‘haitch’ also object to ‘rooves’? Genuinely asking. RP obviously does change, but it’s interesting how certain changes inspire more furious resistance in the old guard than others.

I wonder if it's because dropping (h)aitches is considered such a class marker in SE England - peasants and spivs and cockneys is my impression from literature.

So if people think haitch is right, it seems as if the pedantic aitchers are themselves dropping the aspirate, and that's worse than any other irregular pronunciation because of the class implications?

Yes @Belleager
I think that must be it.

@aliloandabanana

#Choccorocco but this is Pedants' Corner - this is just the sort of thing people will get annoyed about

No. PC used to be to discuss little quirks of interest about language.

It was then rather taken over by people who think they are superior to others because perfectly correct language variations are considered "wrong" because they personally don't have them in their idiolect, or, worse still, think this is a place to take the piss out of other people's SPaG.

It's neither.

It's been explained perfectly upthread in which socio-geographic contexts "haitch" and not "aitch" are used.

I am Irish therefore I say haircut. It’s good to know that I’m considered socially inferior.

Haircut!!! Haha amazing autocorrect. HAITCH.

I'd cite Dunning-Kruger rather than Little Englander myself tbf.

Growing up I thought people from the U.K. said aitch because they were dropping their, er, “h”s.

Like bobbies on the beat saying “‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello”. Or Eastenders characters saying “‘Ere, ‘av a look at ‘im!”

But yes I agree with the snobbery comments. Language is a living breathing evolving thing. You don’t and can’t own it.

EVERYBODY says aitch where I live (London). I actually think they are physically unable to say haitch.

I'm Irish and as far as I'm concerned haitch is both correct and sensible. Why would you pronounce the name of a letter without the sound of the letter?

They can't say R either, and T is increasingly rare.