IS THERE AN AITCH IN AITCH?

[wazzaa]

THIS IS SOMETHING WHICH HAS BUGGED ME FOR A WHILE; IF YOU CHOOSE A CAREER IN TV, THEN I BELIEVE A DEGREE IS A PRE-REQUISITE FOR ENTRY AND ACCEPTANCE, OBVIOUSLY NOT WORTH THE TIME SPENT STUDYING. SO, CAN ANYBODY TELL ME WHY SO MANY VOICE OVERS QUOTE; 'ON BBC IN HAITCH D'. THERE IS NO SECOND AITCH IN AITCH, AND THOSE WHO USE TWO SHOULDN'T EVEN HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF SUCH A JOB WHERE THERE MAY BE YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND AND BEHAVIOUR LIKE THIS SETS A REALLY BAD EXAMPLE, AND I REALLY ANNOYS ME. WHAT DO 'YOU THINK'?

[wazzaa]

oh soz markrae, my error ;)

[Infomaniac]

Interesting article jno, but as tenrec says, why add the sound of another letter to aitch? Why not say "baitch" or "caitch"? Just as sensible or otherwise than as saying "haitch".

[jno]

do you say the H in honour? Hour? If not, why not?

[douglas9401]

Hive no idear

[tenrec]

jno - Probably for the same reason that you don't say the H in Haitch!

[MarkRae]

> do you say the H in honour? Hour?

No.


> If not, why not?

Because that's not how those words are pronounced...

[Infomaniac]

That doesn't change the name of the initial letter, which is aitch. You don't always pronunce "c" (cee) as " s". Ghoti can be pronounced "fish" - "gh" as in "rough" (but not for example as in "plough"); "o" as in "women" (but not as in "hot" or "woman"); "ti" as in "nation" (but not as in "tip"). One could go on ad infinitem about different pronounciations of word, but the names of the individual letters remain the same.

[jno]

so how about hotel?

[Infomaniac]

Good night all! 'ave a nice hevening. ;0)

[eyethenkyew]

A bit of useless information: There is no 'aitch' in the Russian alphabet. For example, Hitler's name would be transliterated and pronounced Gitler (A hard 'G' at the beginning).

There - I did say it was 'useless information', didn't I?

Now.....where did I leave my straitjacket???

[LyndaB]

Couldn't agree more, it's a real bugbear of mine. Stop putting your haitches where there harn't any!!!!!

[tenrec]

Sorry jno, I can't affford an hotel tonight!

[wazzaa]

Hotel's fine , but who's paying???

[sherrardk]

What about the words that have a H sound at the the start - how for example, you don't say ow. (or house or horse). Not picking a fight, just asking.

[MarkRae]

> There is no 'aitch' in the Russian alphabet.

There is no 'j', 'k', 'q', 'v', 'w', 'x' or 'z' in Scots Gaelic, yet the language contains over twice as many individual sounds as English:

http://en.wikipedia.o...A_for_Scottish_Gaelic
http://en.wikipedia.o...pedia:IPA_for_English

[tenrec]

See infomaniac's comment up there ^^^ for the answer to that sher.

[tenrec]

sher at 21.45

[sherrardk]

I saw that but didn't understand it (!), couldn't decide if it was for or against the original question.

[tenrec]

infomaniac's with me on this one. Definitely no H at the beginning of the pronunciation of the initial letter H.

[Bambiagain]

It is regional. I have always said 'aitch', but I've moved around the country (England, when I lived there) and further north they tend to say 'haitch'. They also use different words sometimes, and pronounce various words differently. My mother believed you shouldn't be able to know where someone came from from the way they speak, ie nobody should have an accent other than received English (posh speak). That's not the way life is nowadays - so some people will continue to say 'haitch' and talk of barm cakes and speak in accents incomprehensible to others who live in other parts of the country. That is life.