Aitch, NOT Haitch please!!!

Yep, we find it highly irritating here too.

Yes "haitch" definitely grinds my gears too hear it so often, even on the BBC, it was frowned upon when I was growing up, came into the same category as "them things" for example. I've heard my granddaughter saying "haitch" on occasions, but I realise that may be standard even at school, I let it go otherwise I fear I may come across as a nit picker!

I would add, I think if a person who has English as a second language pronounces anything in what is perceived as a non standard way, absolutely fine, just amazing to have a second language One of my French cousin often emails me with his own spin on English, but being fluent to talk and write in another language, albeit with the odd mistake, is everything imo.

I agree too Trisha57

Here in Ireland you can tell someones religion by how they pronounce it. Catholic schools teach it with the H sound, Protestant schools don't!

I don’t agree that most letter names begin with their sounds maizie. Ef, el, em, en, etc etc.
I do agree that any mispronunciation is down to poor teaching by teachers AND parents. As a teacher I know it’s almost impossible to change a pronunciation that is used in the home.

A bit of a sweeping statement.

That was meant for inishowen

It's really annoying . In N. Ireland only the Catholics say Haitch.Dont know the reason.

There's an aitch in my postcode. Whenever I've to give it, I say aitch, they say A?, I say aitch again, they say Oh, you mean haitch! I've long ago given up.

I Scotland its the jai jye thing,Folk who have moved from other part of the UK dont know why we pronounce "j " as JYE .According to some its from the old french pronunciation Marydoll may know the answer ,it involves a Z .Lots of old scots words are attributed to our auld alliance past so it may well be true

Edinburghers pronounce it ‘itch’

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

As an Edinburger I always thought 'itch' for aitch was a Fife thing! Jye for jai is common round here though. My SiL was very confused by it all.
Who cares though? Who are the pronunciation police and who says they're right? People's pronunciation of words and sounds gives a lot of information about them. There's no right or wrong just people judging each other by their own standards which may or may not be particularly valid.

paddyanne, Oxford English Dictionary (1st edition) states:

The name of the letter, now jay, was formerly jy, rhyming with I, and corresponding to French ji; this is still common in Scotland and elsewhere.

So there you have it! ?

Some dictionaries record what people actually say rather than what they ought to say. Also, though possibly irrelevant in this case, you have to be careful to check that online dictionaries are British and not American. Americans call their language English, but it’s different in many ways.

Recently there were a lot of news items about HS2. I noticed that BBC newsreaders etc had obviously been instructed in correct pronunciation. Not one said haitch!

In my Ayrshire school, the only person who said 'jye' was my P3 teacher with whom I had a mutually hostile relationship! I'd never heard 'haitch' until I came to live south of the Border.

Drives me mad.

It's Aitch

And when saying NHS I have noticed that haitchers struggle somewhat

Much easier to Aitch

there's no right or wrong well actually jane10 there is. The Oxford English Dictionary is the reference for all spelling and pronunciation in the English Language. If everyone just spelled and pronounced as they liked we'd end up with a system that no-one could understand.

marydoll and paddyanne as an incomer to Argyll I worked in a gift shop which sold wooden alphabet letters. A customer asked me for the letter jye and I remember looking up and down the racks of letters feeling totally bemused before informing her that we didn’t have that letter. Oh, I had a lot to learn!
20 years on and living in NE England I recently informed someone that my postcode was 2*jye. ( and naturally I also said that I “stay” at such and such address as opposed to “live at”. But that’s a whole other story!)

Nanny27 I suggest that you check the OED. A previous poster did and found it isn't wrong to pronounce H in that way.

Totally agree it gets my goat too trisha57 lol

Trisha57 Totally with you on this !!!

Me too. I've caught a DGC saying 'haitch", and had words!

Thank you Marydoll, for the information on jye. I grew up with it in the west of Scotland, but it is pretty rare in the NE where I live now. Perhaps it doesn't translate into Doric!

OP, why do you assume ‘aitch’ is the correct pronunciation. Or do you just prefer it if people speak like you do?

I think it’s an age thing. I notice it’s ‘younger ‘ announcers/people who say ‘ haitch’ They are also the same people who say yourself instead of you and myself instead of me. Listen out it will annoy you all as much ‘haitch’