The World Is At An End

[bainbrig]

Just listening to an interview by Sarah Montague on The World at One, in which she intoned...

"GCHQ ..." blah blah. Pronouncing the third letter as HAITCH!

What is the world (at one) coming to when senior be-titled BBC people can't pronounce H at aitch.

Desperately,

BB

[THECORBYLOON]

BB, my NATO answer was in response to the assertion that the aitch in hotel is dropped, which it's not.

[horselady]

I hate "haitch" too. Also "joolery" instead of "jewellry"

[agchristie]

//Thank you, Douglas. I'd never heard of that.// (Pan-loafy)

Such a well bred guy ;-)

[ToraToraTora]

These days the Pan Loaf has been superceeded by the deep fried pan loaf.

[bainbrig]

Sorry Loon, jumped before thinking. (Otherwise it’d be ‘O’ Otel, and not Oscar!)

bb

[Bazile]

How is 'Haitch' pronounced ?

[mushroom25]

language evolves, and what annoys now becomes common usage and eventually "the rules".

the verb "to say" has now almost completely been replaced by the compound verb "to be like".

[bainbrig]

Yes language changes, but to hasten its descent back into the grunts of our ancestors seems reckless. Recent comments in these pages to the effect that losing the distinction between (for example) infer and imply, disinterested and uninterested, and so on, is unimportant and simply ‘dry and dusty syntax [sic]’ is not the view of educated, careful users of English.

BillB

[Calicogirl]

The 'haitch' pronounciation is also an Irish thing- my well read father uses it my mother does not.