Since when did Brits start calling "H" "Haych"? And, WHY?

[FunkyMonkee]

[NamerOfStars]

For all the claims that the US is a horribly racist place, we're not *classist* in the same way the UK traditionally was, and to a lesser extent, still is. Oh, we fawn over stupidly rich people, but we'd extend that fawning to anyone who BECAME stupidly rich.

When many of the inhabitants of what would later become the UK started dropping their initial H's, a section of higher-class society insisted on putting them back in- but not dropping the N's from the preceding indefinite articles. This is why you still see otherwise-intelligent people refer to "an historic moment"; they're modeling their speech after those presumed to be higher-class than themselves. "An 'istoric moment" is correct; the "H" is gone and the initial sound of the second word (note that's SOUND, not letter; thus we speak of "an umbrella", but "a unicorn"), but "an historic" is not, because "H" is not a vowel.

For the record, the proper response to someone saying that is to immediately adopt a ludicrously overexaggerated Cockney accent and say "Oi! Mind yer feckin' vowels, guv'nor!".

[FunkyMonkee]

Not what the question was about but, I can see why umbrella and unicorn are given different starting words. Unicorn has a long U sound and SOUNDS like a vowel but umbrella has the short u sound and isn't really a vowel sound. But, don't take umbrage! It's not the usual thing to do.

[MrOracle]

If I'm not mistaken, it's a result of high levels of Indian and Pakistani immigrants (former British colonies) back to the homeland, who tended to pronounce h's that way, and it's spread over the last 5-10 years, especially with many Indians in the British media. People are mimicking what they hear on TV.

[FunkyMonkee]

My ex-fiance was born and raised in India and I spent 10 years with her here and never heard her say that.

[Bee-Hatch]

Most of us are still a bit traditional and call it "Heroin"

[FunkyMonkee]

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, HEROINE, I J, K, I?

[Bee-Hatch]

Not been to Britain have you?

[FunkyMonkee]

Not been out of my state in 20 years!!

[erandal]

I haven't gotten past an E in years... ;-)

[bolverk]

The name of the letter H comes from the french name "hache" which was /atʃə/ in Old French, which middle English adapted as /aːtʃə/ and which became /eɪtʃ/ in modern English. The pronunciation "haitch" is just adding a [h] sound back to "aitch" because most letters start with their sound.

French added the "ch" because the original name of the letter H /ha/ lost its H in French and became identical to A /a/!

[FunkyMonkee]

Then, why isn't "F" Feff, "I" Iaye, "L", Lell, "M" Memm, "N" Nenn, "R" Rarr, "S" Sess, "W" Wubbleyoo, "X" Xexx and "Y" Yaye? And why does Z have a d at the end of it? Shouldn't we also put a D on the end of nearly all the other letters, then? Especially those that end with an EE sound! B, C, D, E, G, P, T and V.

[bolverk]

Beyond me I only use the language, didn't formulate the rules.

[FunkyMonkee]

It's the same as using the word you're defining IN the definition of the word!

[htmndg183]

From as long as i can remember. We just are like that

[FunkyMonkee]

I've been listening to British movies and TV shows since at least the `60's and I've NEVER heard that used until a few months ago!!

[erandal]

It's the way I have said it for the past 50+ years...

[htmndg183]

Hahaha. There we have it. @erandal