Aitch or Haitch?

[daniielrp]

Todays debate in work, do you say the 'h' sound at the start? 

e.g - 

"I've just got an 'Aitch-dee' TV" or "I've just got a 'Haitch-dee' TV"

 

Whilst most dictionaries will say it is the former, language is decided by those who speak it, not document it.

 

Thoughts?

[rjfaber91]

Ay, Bee, See, Dee, Ee, Ef, Jee, Aitsh, Eye, Jay, Kay, El, Em, En, Oh, Pee, Queue, Ah, Es, Tee, You, Vee, Dubbeh-you, Eks, Why, Zed.

 

Or, for IPA enthusiasts: eɪ, bi:, si:, di:, i:, ef, dʒi:, eɪtʒ, aɪ, dʒeɪ, keɪ, el, em, en, oʊ, pi:, kju:, ɑ:, es, ti:, jʊ, vi:, dəbəjʊ, eks, waɪ, zed...

[dalekphalm]

4 hours ago, daniielrp said:

Todays debate in work, do you say the 'h' sound at the start? 

e.g - 

"I've just got an 'Aitch-dee' TV" or "I've just got a 'Haitch-dee' TV"

 

Whilst most dictionaries will say it is the former, language is decided by those who speak it, not document it.

 

Thoughts?

Well, it depends on the word. I've I'm saying "hi", then I will pronounce the "h" sound harder. If I'm saying "HD TV", I say the H softer.

 

But it also depends on regional dialect, country of origin, etc. There are plenty of accents in which people essentially never pronounce the 'H' at all.

[daniielrp]

44 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Well, it depends on the word. I've I'm saying "hi", then I will pronounce the "h" sound harder. If I'm saying "HD TV", I say the H softer.

But they are two completely different uses of the sound of the letter - "huh" and "aitch".

In this context I'm just looking at how you pronounce it when it's a capital letter/Acronym - like HDTV, HTPC, H.G. Wells etc.

[dalekphalm]

6 minutes ago, daniielrp said:

But they are two completely different uses of the sound of the letter - "huh" and "aitch".

In this context I'm just looking at how you pronounce it when it's a capital letter/Acronym - like HDTV, HTPC, H.G. Wells etc.

In my opinion, you pronounce it with a soft "H". You don't say "Hay-tch Dee Tee Vee". There's just a hint, a hiss of the H sound. I don't know anyone personally that uses a hard 'H' sound when saying HDTV.