The 'H' Pronunciation

The Raven.

It is ironic that the actual letter itself is pronounced and spelt ‘aitch’ in British English, or occasionally ‘eitch’. However, in Hiberno-English (and certain Catholic schools) it is h-added to produce ‘haitch’.

In British English the ‘h’ is pronounced at the beginning of words with exceptions such as ‘heir, honest, honour and hour’.

H-dropping, (the omission of the ‘h’ at the beginning of all h-words where it should be pronounced), has been around for a long time in Cockney English, but generally frowned upon by the upper classes. It has also been given currency in Estuary English.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H#cite_note-0

I found an amusing reference to the h-dropping, in the Chamber’s Twentieth Century Dictionary (1901), in the definition of the term ‘Arry’.

‘Arry: a jovial, vulgar fellow who drops his h’s (from the vulgar Cockney pronunciation of the name, Harry).’

I have to say that I really take exception to the use of ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ in ‘an historic occasion’, and ‘an hotel’. After all they are not pronounced ‘istoric’ or ‘otel’, in proper English.

FlutterinBantam

Joe Duffy thinks we are all "uumans"

Cork people don't know "waat" the time is

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

FlutterinBantam

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

Joe Duffy thinks we are all "uumans"

Cork people don't know "waat" the time is

Dublin people don't know "wha" time it is

"Haitch" is American pronounciation as well

LordSutch

What's that about :rolleyes:

The Raven.

Don't know. Sounds ominous :eek:! Thailand I presume. No 'H' pronounced.

What about 'Thames', correctly pronounced 'Temz' ?

Here's a short clip of a beautiful song that is somewhat ruined by the incorrect use of the 'th'. I like the accent, though :cool:!

http://soundcrank.com/song.aspx?songid=1447741