Fufurasu : Haitch?

Thursday 19^th of January 2006, 22:42

Haitch?

Pet peeve: the name of the letter “H” does not begin with the letter “H.”

The majority of native British English speakers in my current environment say “haitch” instead of “aitch,” a quirk that irritates my sensitive ears (much like “sickth“). By way of elaboration, Wikipedia’s entry on the letter has this to offer on the issue:

The English name of the letter is generally pronounced /eɪtʃ/ and spelled aitch. Pronunciation /heɪtʃ/ (and hence spelling haitch) is usually considered as h-adding and hence nonstandard.

Comments

Russ Thursday 19^th of January 2006, 23:45

I agree. How about the pronounciation of ‘g’ in words, such as ’singing’ or ‘minging’, that’s often heard as “sing-ging” instead of “sing-ing”.

Orestes Friday 20^th of January 2006, 7:37

Haven’t been offended by that yet, and indeed I might be guilty of committing it. Are you refering to what Ling (in Ally McBeal) calls “soft G” and “hard G” regarding the pronounciation of her name? Wikipedia mentions that the “G” in “finger” is a voiced velar plosive, while in “singer” it’s a velar nasal, much like in the Chinese surname “Ng.”

I love Wikipedia.

PokeRon Sunday 22^nd of January 2006, 5:29

Oz, my love forever, I wish I could comment something intellectual to your wonderful inputs but I can not. Recently i have found myself in a situation where I can hardly express myself eloquently in any of the languages I could ever speak and the experience is rather debilitating. However I at times indeed do find an extatically idiotic sort of enjoyment in going `blblblblb` or `wroaaaaaaaagh` or `peekaboo` or `yippeeeeewheeeeeeee` or `raaaaaaa` every day 9 to 5.

eLfie Tuesday 24^th of January 2006, 8:23

omg the H bothers me so much.. and the G thing too.. yes, totally the Ling thing.. what else.. too much T sound in all their words.. i kno that’s just a general difference in accent but it sometimes swarms me like flies!! like “liTTle” and “subTle” and “boTTle” and.. *swats-flies*

Rammy Thursday 26^th of January 2006, 13:16

I couldn’t agree more Orestes, damn thoses Chavs who can’t speak english good innit.

Lynton Pepper Tuesday 7^th of February 2006, 8:54

Where am I?

Orestes Tuesday 7^th of February 2006, 22:13

You, sir, are at the right place.

Spiro Scafidas Wednesday 15^th of February 2006, 19:27

I knew this was the right place! We should tell Bernie and Fab as well. (thats Fab pronounced fAb_ with a silent H in the middle