Throughout history, those with social clout have set the standards for what’s the more acceptable pronunciation.
This article originally appeared on The Conversation, and is republished under a Creative Commons licence. The authors are Kate Burridge, senior fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies and professor of linguistics at Monash University; and Catherine McBride, Marie Curie Fellow of the European Union Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies at University of Freiburg, and professor of psychology at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Like Dr. Seuss’ Star-Belly Sneetches and Plain-Belly Sneetches, there are two types of creatures — haitchers with H on their 8th letter name and aitchers with “none upon thars”.
That H isn’t so big. It’s really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But it does — the tiny H on “(h)aitch” divides the nation. The pronunciation has become something of a social password, a spoken shibboleth distinguishing in-groupers from out-groupers. Those with social clout set the standards for what’s “in” and what’s “out” — no H has the stamp of approval.
The best kind of people are people without!
Shibboleths die hard — the opprobrium attached tohaitchprobably derives from its long association with Irish Catholic education. There’s no real evidence for this, mind, asSue Butlerpoints out, but never let facts get in the way of a good shibboleth.
Aitchers’reactions are often visceral. Someone once reported to us an encounter withhaitchis like an encounter with fire ants. We’ve no doubt that psycho-physiological testing would show thathaitchcan raise goosebumps. Linguistic pinpricks are established early on in the acquisition process (“Don’t say ‘haitch’”!) and they arouse emotions like other childhood reprimands (including swearwords).
The ins and outs of H
The story of the weakly articulated H is murkily entwined with the story of its name. Long gone from Old English words likehring“ring”,hnecca “neck” andhlūd“loud”, it would have disappeared entirely if writing hadn’t thrown out a lifejacket.
Few things will the English youth find in after-life more pro-fitable than the right use of the aforesaid letter.
It was once usual for speakers to drop aspirates at the beginning of words — in fact up until the 1700s, it was fashionable to do so. But a spelling-obsessed 18th century stigmatised the loss of many consonants, including H.
R-less pronunciations ofarmandcarmight have snuck under the radar, but H-dropping fell well and truly from grace.
In 1873, Thomas Laurence Kington-Oliphant wrote about this “revolting habit” in his chapter“Good and Bad English”, advising:
Few things will the English youth find in after-life more pro-fitable than the right use of the aforesaid letter.
And so, the English youth restored H to words likehat, and even at the start of many French words likehumble, which had entered English H-less (the Romans pronounced their Hs, but the French dropped theirs). Spellers who weren’t quite sure whether or not to include H added a few extras along the way —umble pie(“offal pie”) turned intohumble pie.
Haitch has the pedigree
There’s an ironic wrinkle to this story. The nameaitchmight be a sign of high education in some circles, but is itself an example of H-dropping. Deriving from medieval Frenchhacheor “axe” (hatchetandhashtagare relatives), it also arrived in English H-less (likehumbleandherb).
It’s a curious letter name being, as the Oxford English Dictionary describes, “so remote from any connection with the sound”. In fact there’s solid evidence supportinghaitchas the better option. To understand why, we need to appreciate the primacy of initial letter sounds in words.
Learning and alliteration
English speakers find it easiest to attend to and manipulate the beginning sounds of words. For example, it’s easier for us (orally, that is - by sound, not spelling) to take away the “b” sound inbeat(to make iteat) or to replace the “b” with a “p” to make itPetethan it is to take away the “t” sound inbeat(to make itbe) or to replace it with a “k” to make itbeak.
It’s more natural for us to focus on initial sounds, especially for children.
We often make use of alliteration in names and tongue twisters. Dr. Seuss (think Aunt Annie’s Alligator or The Butter Battle Book), Walt Disney (such as Donald Duck; Mickey Mouse), and J.K. Rowling (Godric Gryffindor; Helga Hufflepuff; Rowena Ravenclaw; Salazar Slytherin) all capitalised on this phenomenon.
Tongue twisters highlight the special quality of alliteration for learning as well; who can forget Peter Piper and his pickled peppers, Silly Sally and her sheep, or Betty Botter and her butter?
The ABCs of the ABC
Many letters of the alphabet are phonetically iconic; their names represent the sound they make. In places where letter names are learned before letter sounds, such as Australia and the US,these letter names can facilitate childrenin learning letter sounds and, ultimately, word reading. The letter sounds that are easiest to remember are those that begin with their corresponding letter, such as B, D, J, K, P, or T.
Research shows it’s more difficult to learn sounds made by letters that end with their letter sound, such as F, L, and M. Those that have no correspondences to the letter sound are the most difficult. Logically, W should make the “d” sound (or change its name towubble-u).
Haitch vs. aitch, round 2
Whatever your visceral reaction to pronouncing H one way or the other,haitchhas definite benefits for letter sound learning.
So it’s not surprisingit’s taking offin some parts of the English-speaking world. When the letter H is pronounced beginning with the letter sound it makes, children have an easier time learning its correspondence as they learn to read.
Dr. Seuss implicitly understood this. We suggest that a follow-up primer for young readers will one day include Horton hearing a Haitch.
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