"Haitch" on the BBC!

Whilst talking to my friend today I was reminded that I say oven (as in on) and she says uven (as in up).

This is the first time that I have thought about aitch versus haitch but naturally say aitch.
Baggs I am from Yorkshire and I would say Talbot Road as the locals do.

I also say armonds ( or aamonds)

Irish nuns at my school years ago said fillums ( films) it made us all giggle.

MamaCaz, thanks for enlightening me. I get it now! . How could I have been so stupid? I didn't realise that you could you add extra letters onto a word if it suited you.

You've heard of a silent 'h', Marydoll ? Well this a good example of its close relative, the invisible 'h'

If the spelling is aitch, why is it pronounced haitch ?

its 'aitch'....as on 'otel'

Never said haitch though, always aitch!

Shocking! I've been saying aLmonds all my life and now I find out it's wrong! ?
I'm a Manchester girl.

I agree that it is a midland thing. When I moved to Brum to go to uni I had never heard it before, but everyone used it.

yay! marydoll!

I too was brought up in Paisley and my grandparents were Irish immigrants!
I say ir-on.

I've heard people say fillum for film. A Scottish friend I had at school in Lancashire said I-ron, pronouncing the r in iron. Her parents were from Paisley by Glasgow via Irish immigrants.

There's a road in Blackpool called Talbot Road. Locals tend to say Tàlbot. My mum, from Yorkshire always insisted it should be Tall-bot. I stuck to local speak n that one, though I didn't say lurry for lorry like one of my primary school teachers.

MrBags says haitch. He's Welsh.

The difference between calm and carm is very slight, but if you concentrate on where your tongue is when you say the words, the L is not really silent, just minimal.

Putting Bluebelle out of her misery. - Say W all on its own and you will notice that you purse your lips as though you are going to kiss someone. Now say "lor" and you will notice that you end that further back in your mouth.

There is a W at the end of "law", so it should end with a kiss. (But don't tell that to a lawyer defending a burly housebreaker)

Variant I love the never heard the Scottish Welsh or Irish say anything like that

have you ever heard Irish say film ....fill.um ?

I suppose it depends if you use a short 'a' or a long 'a' when pronouncing 'almonds'

Depending on whether you are a posh southerner or a down-to-earth midlander.

Why should bath be pronounced barth? There is no 'r' in the word.

And Falmouth?

Well, not every vowel - what about helm, pelmet?

The almonds thing really winds me up. I read recently that pronouncing the L is acceptable but it really isn't. An L between a vowel and M is always silent as in calm, palm, balm etc.

Thanks for that MamaCaz.

I listened to the pronunciation of law and to my ear it sounded like "lore", as in 'folk lore'. Oh dear!

I am going to bring up the word in conversation now and listen keenly for another pronunciation!

I use 'aitch'. I am not one for "drawRing" either. That grates, so there is a subtlety there, with law, that I'm missing!

I am a bath, glass, mask person as well, (short vowel sounds) always finding the more southern glarss, barth, marsk pronunciation rather strange.

I love regional accents.

There are a number of English accents-cockney, brum, essex, which involve droppoing the "h" at the beginning of words, as in 'im, ' er, 'ospital, etc.

I think that some folk who grew up speaking like that, but are now trying to "better themselves", especially if they get on tv, try hard to correct this by saying "him", "her", "hospital" and mistakenly think that "aitch" should be pronounced "haitch".

I've never heard a Scottish, Welsh or Irish person make that mistake.

The only people I know who say 'haitch' are Australians.

The intrusive 'r' seems to appear when followed my a vowel - lor and order - but it is never heard in Scotland.
paddy that made me laugh and I'm guessing the offending word was 'clarty'. Was it?

Day6 www.macmillandictionary.com/pronunciation/british/law No need for any mouth contortions - the 'w' isn't pronounced, which I am guessing you were trying to do.

No need to apologize either . The lore / ore version seems to be as widely used now as 'haitch', which probably means that both pronunciations of these words have equal claim to being 'standard'. There is nothing to say that a word can't have more than one standard pronunciation, like 'either', though I am sure that such status, even if it were official, would never stop some of us (me included) from silently - or otherwise - screaming when we hear our pet hates.

Just to add - there was a long debate several years ago on the WordReference regarding 'haitch', and I remember it being established that 'haitch' is the standard pronounciation in Ireland, while Northern Ireland pronounciation seems to be divided, with the Catholic pronunciation also being 'haitch'. That makes it hardly surprising that this pronunciation is also widespread here. Since then, I have been perfectly happy to accept it.

I say neither Al..monds nor ARMONDS, I say, Aaamonds!!!
Language is evolving all the time. I don't like " haitch" nor "lor", but I guess I will have to live with it.
I sent an email to my daughter at work recently. I used a an old Scottish word for dirty. She phoned me and went ballistic, said it had been picked up by the filters and reported as a profanity.!!.