Aitch

[Dudley]

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.

[Gef]

I think it has alwys been that way.

[Quizmonster]

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!

[Champagne]

Bad education, Dudley. Most people really think it is pronounced 'haitch'. I have even corrected a boss of mine in the past, and he was educated at Eton!!

[Octavius]

H-Honestly, does it really matter?

[DMG]

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!

[Octavius]

Don't worry DMG it's all French anyway.

The Anglo-Saxons sounded all their h�s.

[Grunty]

Champagne - are you sure about that?  Didn't he go to Heton?

[landie]

I ate it when that appens.

[Chinajan]

This is a bugbear of mine too.  I worked at a place where the sales staff were forever using it on the 'phone, thinking it made them sound posh.

By the way, DMG, I'm Yorkshire born and bred and my [extremely] poorly educated Grandfather taught me this before I started school!

[RogK]

Bugbear of mine, too, and I think it DOES matter, though I'm not quite sure why! "H" at the beginning is an ugly sound. I think I'm right in saying that the letter aitch is the only one in the alphabet which can be officially spelled. And it starts with "a"!

[Narolines]

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...........

[flashpig]

Maybe we should spll things out as I learnt when I was 4, if it's such a big deal.

Then H (aitch) was pronuonced - huh

as in "huh ah puh puh eee - Happy!"

Does it really matter? It's not a real word.

[lady_p_gold]

All I can say is in Hertfordshire 'haitches' hardly ever happen

[Octavius]

Not hoften hanyway lady_p_gold

Should we all be saying zee instead of zed then, cos Zed's dead baby?

[lady_p_gold]

Zed aint dead its just terminally ill .....