H "atich" and "haitch" - please explain!

[coppit]

So, the letter H...

"aitch" and "haitch" - are both correct (so you just pronounce it how you like) or is "haitch" actually incorrect.

Thanks!

I say aitch, but dh says haitch, and unfortunately so do the dc, which they have got from their teacher at school.

Is it as bad as 'jai' though? As opposed to 'jay'

My whole family says it and I suppose I did too until I realised it is WRONG.

eh?

Jai....really?

Some of my friends used to say "heighth," but I have killed them to spare others.

I suppose it's a scottish thing.

surely ai and ay are the same sound?
Praise, braise, etc aound the same as lay for eg.

It's an Irish thing too

From what I can gather, most teachers (primary) say Haitch, I suppose it must help with teaching the kids to spell. But of course, the kids all then call it haitch too.

Drives me LOOOOOPY, DS now never calls it Haitch in my hearing I'm pleased to say.

I am Scottish, it is aitch.

I'm thinking it might be a regional thing. I moved area to be with DH and he (and pretty much everyone else round our way) says haitch. He was actually amazed when I told him it was pronounced aitch! I have my work cut out teaching him and DS to say it properly in the face of all the local evidence to the contrary...

Another one that annoys me is (mostly older people for some reason) saying acrost instead of across. My dad does it, and I think I even heard Moira Stewart do so on Radio 2 this morning!

But then I think I am a bit of a grammar fascist...

Have you ever noticed how many people who work in HR pronounce it haitch?

but they also say "myself" instead of me, so....

it's aitch because aitch is its name, not the way you say it.
like Z's name is zed, but you don't say Zedebra, do you? no, you say Zebra.

so you call the letter aitch, but you say it "h"

Not grammar. Pronunciation/spelling.

LaTristesse: it's not regional; it's uneducated.

seriously! That's not me being all posh, it's just that those people have never been told it's aitch and have copied what they've heard from other people.

i learned it was aitch when i was about 6: at church, I was reading the initials in George's hat, which said G H H, and I said "haitch" and i was corrected and it was explained to me. No-one else had ever explained it to me, or to anyone i know (as far as i can tell).

Oh God, Vader. haitchR makes the finest personnel officer sound rather hignorant imo.

I have heard "haitch" on BLUE PETER. And that's the BBC ffs. Our children don't stand a chance...

OTOH I think "an hotel" sounds daft.

but an hotel is correct. as is an historical moment and other ones.

not all words starting H are an H... though.

(although i stand to be corrected on that)

Nickelbabe, I think that these days a historian, a hotel (etc.) are correct, though you can also use an if you insist. Use of 'a' or 'an' before a word beginning with h depends on pronunciation, especially in speech: if you say an hotel and pronounce the h of hotel, then you are not only wrong but also sound like a bit of a twat . But if you write it you probably just seem a bit old-fashioned.

Haitch is horrific. I once put on a dating site profile that I would not be interested in anyone who thought it was a proper letter.

One person said, "Oh, I say haitch, it must be a Lewisham thing."

"No," I said; "it's aitch, and it's an Oxford English Dictionary thing."

She never wrote back ...

It's aitch of course. Interesting stuff on Wikipedia about pronunciation of H in Northern Ireland

Isn't it down to over-correction? i.e. the "working classes" drop their aitches; therefore to pronounce it is a sign of education; therefore you start pronouncing it where it shouldn't be and, frankly, show yourself up.

Same as people who say "between you and I" and the whole "if you call up, just ask for myself" bollocks.

aitch is correct
haitch is incorrect

aitch vs haitch is one of the things that irks me most!
Definitely seems to be more common these days, though, as I hear it more and more (and have to grit my teeth)

Hotel the h is aspirated so it's A Hoe-tel but for historian the h is silent so it's AN Iss-torian or aspirated to give A Hiss-torian.

I have a very nice list of silent/aspirated h words from when I taught EFL to play with if you like. Most EMT people trip up on them, including me when I was training!

It's quite a recent thing to say "a hotel". Was always "an hotel" with silent h. Really pretentious civilised people still say it this way.

The 'h' in hotel isn't always aspirated.
I understood it that if you say "an 'otel", ie not pronouncing the 'h' in hotel then writing an hotel is fine, albeit rather old fashioned (my father says this and I rather like him saying it!).
If you say the 'h' in hotel then you would write a hotel.