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Pedants' corner
Original poster

Saying haitch.

338 replies

Chunkymenrock · 12/09/2021 19:46

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? 😕

OP posts:
MindyStClaire · 13/09/2021 12:04

@TheYearOfSmallThings

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.

Someday we should have an Irish takeover and post one of these threads about the things English people do to the letter R. Wink
MolyHolyGuacamole · 13/09/2021 12:18

Going to throw a spanner in the works and also add that it should be 'zee' and not 'zed', it throws off the whole rhyming rhythm of the alphabet song and I can't being myself to say it (and I'm from a native English speaking country, NOT America, and we grew up saying zee)

TheYearOfSmallThings · 13/09/2021 12:26

Someday we should have an Irish takeover and post one of these threads about the things English people do to the letter R.

I'm trying to be tolerant Mindy, I am, but...one day I will crack and start that thread.

Consonants are free and widely available - let's use them!

JaneJeffer · 13/09/2021 12:31

I noticed a lot more English people are using Haitch now that we've taught them to Wink

This is probably the 100th time I've posted on a H thread.

HopeClearwater · 13/09/2021 12:40

@TheYearOfSmallThings

Year is spelled with a y … are you calling it the letter yay? Or yie to rhyme with pie?

TheYearOfSmallThings · 13/09/2021 12:42

I pronounce it wYe. The Y plays the starring role.

ZednotZee · 13/09/2021 13:06

@MolyHolyGuacamole

Gosh! How very dare you? Grin

LizzieAnt · 13/09/2021 13:38

@Doggiedementia

There’s an underlying mocking and value judgement made about the haitch pronunciation and it makes me very uncomfortable.
Yes, this. I'm Irish so always say haitch, and it's not nice to know that others would look down their noses at me because of this. As has been said upthread, haitch is correct in many dialects of English.
DaisyWaldron · 13/09/2021 15:24

@MindyStClaire I've been living in England for 25 years and I'm just glad that people say "voicemail" now, because of the amount of wincing I used to do when people would write "ansaphone".

LemonSwan · 13/09/2021 15:29

My name, email etc. has an H in it so I spell it often, and have it spelt to me too.

Most people say Haitch, those that say Aitch I am not bothered by.

Sometimes I say either, Aitch usually if quicker and in a string of letters, Haitch if I am putting emphasis on because its mispelt or I am going slower.

As long as we all mutually understand each other its hardly the end of the world.

ErrolTheDragon · 13/09/2021 15:37

While the word for H is spelled 'aitch', it's illogical - 'haitch' would make more sense.

So I think complaining about its pronunciation is excessively pedantic.

SaturdaySpread · 13/09/2021 15:42

Well it does make no sense. Round here you grow up being nagged not to drop your Aitch, that has no "h" so what are you dropping? Grin

Belleager · 13/09/2021 18:15

The letter used to be pronounced ha apparently, became aha then acha and the rest is history ...

I favour a return to the letter HA! myself

MolyHolyGuacamole · 13/09/2021 19:21

@ErrolTheDragon

While the word for H is spelled 'aitch', it's illogical - 'haitch' would make more sense.

So I think complaining about its pronunciation is excessively pedantic.

By that logic letters like L and M should be pronounced 'lell' and 'mem' Grin
MolyHolyGuacamole · 13/09/2021 19:25

@Belleager

The letter used to be pronounced ha apparently, became aha then acha and the rest is history ...

I favour a return to the letter HA! myself

That's interesting, in Spanish it pronounced 'ah-cheh' and in french it's 'ah-sh' then again H is silent in both languages anyway
AhNowTed · 13/09/2021 21:42

I get so tired of this nonsense.

Folks really need to get out more. Travel a bit. We're not all the same and that doesn't make me a less

MedicineHat · 13/09/2021 21:42

Now I remember why I don't come here often. So much of this pedantry is just thinly veiled bigotry and judgement.

AhNowTed · 13/09/2021 21:45

Fuck sake..

a lesser or you a better person.

CanIPleaseHaveOne · 13/09/2021 21:46

*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*

Marry me? Grin

AhNowTed · 13/09/2021 21:50

@MedicineHat

Now I remember why I don't come here often. So much of this pedantry is just thinly veiled bigotry and judgement.

Agreed.

Pedantry my arse.

I'm willing to bet that some supposed pedants have a regional accent of their own, which means they hardly speak in RP themselves.

RubySlippers123 · 13/09/2021 22:02

@thatonesmine

I hate it too, and actually had someone correct me once when I was spelling my name over the phone. I said aitch and she said "you mean haitch?"
🙈🙈🙈
RubySlippers123 · 13/09/2021 22:03

@MrsGface

Haitch is the standard pronunciation in Hiberno English. It’s not incorrect, it’s just different.
It is incorrect.
Auroreforet · 13/09/2021 22:11

@MindyStClaire well as I am a Catholic with an Irish father I score 2 out of 3 so perhaps I'm looking down on myself! I still prefer Aitch.

As someone else says it's more that I'm old.

tangone · 13/09/2021 22:16

Shakespeare must have had no social class - he made words up. Commoner.

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