The letter 'h'...

[WaldoMcFroog]

In the world's worst newspaper, The Metro, this morning there was a letter commenting on the very important issue of how to pronounce the letter 'h'. The correspondent claimed that the Haitch/Aitch divide could be a Catholic/Protestant one.

Anyone able to shed light on whether this is true, and if so, why this might be?

[jno]

I seem to recall the good people of Northern Ireland did use that as an informal classifier. (Can't remember who used what, though.) But in mainland Britain I doubt that the theory holds water - something like a quarter of the people I speak to seem to say Haitch, which doesn't tally with any particular religion.

Depending on the degree of haspiration of the H, you might be able to tell how agnostic someone was, I shouldn't wonder.

[naomi24]

If that's true, then perhaps it stems from an attermpt by one group to undermine the other. I've never heard of there being a religious connection. I've always assumed that those who say 'Haitch' do so because they think it's correct. 'Ow hawfully posh!

[jno]

Wikipedia says:

The Mid Ulster dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland shows influence from both the West Midlands and Scotland, thereby giving it a distinct accent compared to Hiberno-English, along with the use of such Scots words as wee for 'little' and aye for 'yes'. Some jocularly call this dialect phonetically by the name Norn Iron. There are supposedly some minute differences in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics, the best known of which is the name of the letter h, which Protestants tend to pronounce as "aitch", as in British English, and Catholics tend to pronounce as "haitch", as in Hiberno-English.

[chakka35]

Since the letter is 'aitch' why should anyone, regardless of background, pronounce it 'haitch'?
We don't pronounce O as 'ho', A as 'hay', X as 'hex', E as 'hee', F as 'hef', and so on. Daft I call it (and I bet you can't remember what cartoon strip that came from. Too young, most of you).

[naomi24]

Chakka, I expect it's because with (most) words that begin with 'h' , we pronounce the first lettter as 'h' rather than 'a' - well some of us do. :o)

Could the cartoon strip be 'Our Ernie'! Go on, tell me I've shocked you!








(Oh, it's no good .... I can't do it .... must confess I googled it!).

[chakka35]

Naomi, I was so impressed there for a moment- though I gallantly assumed that you must be a collector of vintage comics published long before your time.
Then the let-down...aaaah.
At least you were honest.

But fancy Google knowing. I must look it up.

[Octavius]

Never have I heard such a load of bollox. Well, not since the last thread I read at least.

[rojash]

The strange thing is that you never meet anyone who says woubleyew or feff or lel, mem, nen, etc...

[gonzo00]

well waldo,sorry to say that it is me who is probably best qualified to answer this one! in my homeland of n.ireland a well known method of determining a persons religion is by the way that H is pronounced.
members of the protestant religion would say aitch,whilst members of the catholic religion would use haitch,a pronunciation which has roots in the gaelic language. the way that one would pronunce H could be a matter of life and death depending on what area you were in at the time! seriously! if our friend above thinks this is all bo**ocks then let's have him go into a shop in loyalist east belfast and ask for 20 b&haitch and see what happens!!! love gonzo!

[Octavius]

I wouldn't dream of it.
Cigarettes kill.

[Cate]

The letter 'H' is pronounced AITCH and, although I am a very placid person, it really gets my goat when people pronounce it HAITCH, especially when they are television announcers or people in adverts. Grrrrrrrrrrr. It makes me want to throw the telly across the room.