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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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As a result of my recent post in I&A on the "Ambrose Bierce" thread, I am reminded of something that I have been meaning to ask you for a while, now.
When you are spelling a word out loud, how do you pronounce "H"?
I was brought up to say, "aitch," but I have noticed a rapidly growing tendency for people to pronounce it, "haitch." When I was young, such a pronunciation was a sign of ill-education, but I hear it now from people who are anything but badly educated.
I will admit to the logic of the second version (and the converse illogic, indeed) but I do have to say that it gates on my ear.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear RC: I have never heard "haitch" except as a joke.
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Unfortunately it's really quite common in the UK (oh dear, does that make me sound like a snob? It's not meant to but it does really irritate me - time to switch to Pet Peeves methinks!).
I'd always thought of it as a regional thing (or something said to annoy your parents), but maybe it's spreading.
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Dear RC: I have never heard "haitch" except as a joke.
Whoa! We must all be jokes on the East side of the pond, then. I have always pronounced it as 'haitch' and have heard no other variations within GB and IRL. No, I think it's a North American thang.
It grates me more to hear 'aitch' but not as much as hearing 'an aitch'. I mean, we don't pronounce 'h' words beginning with the article 'an'. An hospital? I don't think so. To do that it would become An ospital.
A haitch. A hospital.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Honour and Hour are but two. For these I would accept an aitch and an hour.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yeah, I've only ever heard "aitch" this side of the Pond my own self.
While we're at it, how maany of you pronounce "wh" as "hw"? For me the latter is literary and used only when reciting or singing, though I have heard it used naturally in the Appalachian South so I figure it must be an archaic English pronunciation (awaiting one of our pundits on this).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Guess it must be a North American thing then, because I've always said "aitch" (like an 8 with a "ch" on the end) and "an aitch". Which brings us to the beginning of the word...who says "eyetch" and who says (long-"a" here, I could never find the code for the mark, anybody know it?) "aytch"
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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"Aitch" is definitely still very much in use in UK - among older people, particularly. And I would (indeed, do!) certainly both talk and write about, " an historical treatise," for instance. I would also say, " an hallucination;" to use "a" would sound wrong to me. But " a hunk of meat" is the only possibility, I think, or " a hopper." It Begins to look as though, for me at least, if the second letter of the word is "a" or "i", then I would usually use " an "; if it is "o" or "u" then and " a " (But it would " a hive of bees" I guess!!!!  signed confused, of UK
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"Aitch" is definitely still very much in use in UK - among older people, particularly.Dear confused, Sorry to have to add to your mental confusion but my dad, who is English, is 62 and he made sure that I pronounced my haitches. I don't know what you would classify as 'old' but 62 is a fine line. Maybe a pre-war generation used it??? Hi Dr. Bill! I knew you weren't referring to us as being a joke. I was playing on your words earlier on!!! No offence taken!!! 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Oh, it's always been used (always? a long time, that - but since C19, at the very least) However, in Southern England in the '40s and '50s, it was definitely looked down on as "lower class" and boys at my school were castigated, but not actually chastised, by the masters for using "haitch" rather than "aitch." (I don't classify 62 as old, BTW, for very good personal reasons  ) The acceptance of "haitch," as I say, appears to be a fairly modern thing in UK.
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I'd carry that through into the 70's/80's, RC, as it was definitely frowned on at my schools as well. My impression is that in the UK it's a very regional thing, so haitch could be the accepted form in one region and aitch the form in another. Maybe you just find haitch being used more widely as people move around more and it spreads from one region to the next?
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