Letters go missing. Have you noticed? Others give up spots to new letters or change their sound. Just as some letters hop into bed with new friends, nestling in words they have no place in being.
Frisky business. Like a dear friend whose antics are causing concern, English is spoiling for an intervention, a sober heart-to-heart – or so the recent influx of emails told me. Last month, over 100 comments hit the screens, mainly due to H.
The haitch vs aitch debate is far from settled. Credit: iStock That’s aitch or haitch – take your pick, as nobody swings both ways. Robert Drewe sparked the piece, watching ABC TV’s Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee and noting the haitch bias among contestants.
As soon as I shared the news, the flame wars erupted. Sticklers and crusaders, all of you, saying why aitch is proper or haitch is logical. “Logical?!” seethed one poster online.
“If you’re going to pronounce haitch, then why not mem, nen, sess or feff?” Or wuh, for double-u. As pushback, one haitcher argued the aspirated version is more efficient since aitch asks you “to twist your mouth into an unnatural position, while haitch just flows”. Simple ergonomics.
Many of you blamed Irish nuns and brothers for the heresy, presuming aitch sits on God’s right side. Historically, that holds some water. Back in 2016, the ABC’s language expert Tiger Webb explored the divisive letter, airing the idea that Irish Catholic educators, brought to Australia in the mid-180.