Ask Your Question today
I have noticed most people around me these days are saying 'haitch' not 'aitch' to mean the letter 'h'. I just can't get past it, is this normal? Also, where the fuck did people get this 'anythink' or 'everythink' from??? Since when did 'thing' start being pronounced 'think'???
Are we talking American pronunciations...?
Evolution of speech my dear friends. All the words you consider to be right and proper now would have once been thought to be pathetic.
i ifnd it extremely funny.. i guess only when my math teacher does it since she's indian and nobody understands her anyway. Also, she says "we" instead of V. But yea the whole haitch thing can get annoying. its normal. I agree aswell. (:
....and it depends what kind of English speakers (I suppose) populated your country. Here in New Zealand we say 'aitch' but in Australia (alot of Cockney heritage there) its 'haitch'.
Oh, I loooove how French flows, it's awesome and beautiful!! It's like I was meant to speak French, I just "get" it!! I always wanted so desperately to learn Spanish and Italian but I have this strange mental block whenever I try, which is odd since French, Spanish and Italian are all Romance Languages.
Funny you mentioned the word herb! Funny how British tend to say IStoric yet pronounce the H in herb but Americans do the exact opposite!!
I've never heard this before but it reminds me of the people I hear that put "an" before historic and other such words that have a hard H sound at the beginning. "An" is supposed to be used before a vowel sound, not a hard consonant sound!! It sounds so stupid. I mean, when British people do it, it's OK because they don't pronounce the hard H sound in historic but jeez, Americans need to stop it!!
I think it's weird when we do it too. I write it the correct way but never pronounce it like that. We don't drop the H from herbs, though, and it sounds really funny when people do. It sounds very French. It's also funny when people pronounce Milan as "millON" because that sounds French as well. The "a" sound is much harder in Italian, like "millARno".
I think English speakers are more precious about the language than some other nationalities. In French and Italian, they'll happily change the spelling of a word because it sounds nicer to say or is easier (less glottal stops). It's why so many Italian words end with a vowel, so they can flow into the next word. They think it's a good thing and that it makes their language more beautiful. I tend to agree with them. But it's tougher for us because of the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic root of many of our words. They're words built for utility, not for beauty.
One final thing, my Italian friend always says that English is a much more expressive language than her own. There are more words with subtle differences in meaning.
I love talking about language! I'm in my element in this story. :)
Hey, I can't help it when I don't pronounce my "haitches", I'm from a part of the North-East where it's a local dialect trait. So I end up saying 'ome when I mean home.
It's not like I'm doing it on purpose.
You lot have the nicest accents in the country, anyway. I'd hate for north-easterners to start speaking differently.
Really? I thought people couldn't stand how North-Easterner's spoke, cause I can sound so common at times, specially when I'm just at home and not bothering to even try to sound proper lol.
Thanks though, I think it's cool that even with one language, there's so many different dialects and quirks. :)
Nooooo, we love it. You sound sing-song and friendly. My friends and I still do Byker Grove impressions to this day. We're just fascinated with the accent and how nice it sounds. By far the nicest one in Great Britain, followed by some of the Welsh ones.
My accent is pure Steve McDonald from Coronation Street because we were pretty much born in the same suburb.
I have never thought about the whole haitch/aitch thing, is there an actual real answer?
I'm very colloquial and mixing that with my accent means I usually drop a lot of letters out of words. I usually drop T's, so water turns into warrr-ah! And the word "everything" just ends after n lol sorry you'd hate me!
Language is evolving my friend, we will not speak like this in a 100 years, Shakespeare would be turning in his grave!
There is a real answer, yeah. Aitch is standard in British English. Haitch is the norm in Irish English. Both are correct. It just depends which variant of English you follow.
I drop the same letters as you. It depends who I'm talking to as to whether I put a T in fourteen. With friends, it's just fawh-een. And the g in everything almost never gets pronounced. But then, I have a regional accent and I'm expected to not know how to speak. A girl I went out with always referred to me as "axe murderer" just because of my accent.
I don't think Shakespeare would mind too much, though. He invented so many words and changed language so much, he's the last one who should be complaining when someone else does it!
Oh Dappled you never fail to dazzle me with your knowledge!
I've been called many things because of my accent...never an axe murderer though lol! People assume I'm dumb because of my accent (Brummie) I'd try and convince you otherwisw but I know I come across as a bit of a spaz on this website.
I have to admit I've grew up saying "haitch" (apologies to OP) must be the Irish in me!
I think you come across just fine on the website. You fit in really well with the rest of us, and I certainly always read your comments (although I'm going to be imagining them with a Brummie accent from now on). I'm a Manc, by the way, so between us I think we've got the two most unloved accents on the site. Yay for us!
The one I don't like is "innit". I don't mind when it's a contraction of "isn't it" but when people use it really weirdly like, "I'll see you when I get there, innit".
it is haitch and not aitch u stupidface I hate people who say aitch and yah "anythink" annoys me too.