Shopping & Style0 min ago
Aitch
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Why is it that about half the population have taken to pronouncing the letter H as H-aitch? There is only one H in aitch and it is NOT at the beginning.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.In older military times, there was a standing joke that an ill-educated Cockney training NCO used to say: "Rifle butts are made of hoak, hash or 'ickory." In other words, he added an initial 'h' to words which did not possess one and removed it from words which did.
So, people who say 'haitch' are in much the same boat as the NCO, I'm afraid!
So, people who say 'haitch' are in much the same boat as the NCO, I'm afraid!
It's a northern thing. I lived in Yorkshire until I was 11, and never heard anyone pronounce it 'aitch' - it was only when I met southerners that they made me feel v. stupid for pronouncing this in an unimportant regional variant. Please don't make anyone feel silly for saying things they way their mother taught them!
If most people think it is pronounced with the "h", but only about 50% of people do pronounce the "h", does that mean some people who think they should aspirate actually don't? Sorry - I think I'm suffering from lack of sleep! It drives me mad too - I lay some of the blame at the feet of Aussie soaps, along with responsibilty for that nerve-grating habit of using a rising inflection at the ends of sentences...........