The letter that divides a nation



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The Australian vernacular is a divisive beast.

Depending on who you talk to, you may be torn to say "potato cake" instead of "scallops", "drinking fountain" instead of "bubbler" and "Blake Garvey is awesome!" instead of "Blake Garvey is a f *** ing tosser!"

But there is a word – no, a simple letter – that divides us so subtly that you can not even be aware of its exasperating power.

The letter H.

Do you pronounce it "aitch" or "hashish"? Growing up, you may have been reprimanded for using the last breath.

"Parents know that if their children bite their noses, neglect their teeth, say instead of aitch, they will never do it in the world, it's as simple as that," writes Susan Butler in his book . Aitch factor . "Haitch is logical but not socially acceptable, yet history plays its role."

But how is it correct?

  Why is the letter "H" so controversial? "Title =" Why is the letter "H" so controversial? "Data-largeimg =" https://media.apnarm.net.au/media/images/2018/07/22/imagev156b59ac1015a2af7c995a73efb506fc0-rrdco45jv41qa48gnq2_ct677x380.jpg "/> 
 
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<p> <span>  Why is the letter" H "so controversial ? </span> </p>
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	  This is not a recent phenomenon – according to Michael Rosen, author of <em> Alphabetical: How Every Letter tells a story, </em> People were becoming arrogant about the letter H as far as Rome antique.
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	  The letter traces its origins to the French medieval ax <em></em>  but the French act of dropping the sound in words (thinking "a historian" as opposed to "a historian") does not not taken off in other cultures.
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	  In ancient Rome, to pronounce every "H" was the civilized thing to do.
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	  At the end of the nineteenth century, <em> The New York Times </em> described people who abandoned their H as "socialists without h".
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	  Even in the middle of the 20th century, giving up on Hs was not just the "polite society" to do. In Enid Blyton's series Malory Towers </em>located in an upper-clbad English boarding school in the 1950s, there is a section where a girl makes fun of her father for his gross behavior – characterized by his "H-drop."
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	  "Jo's is a day boasted that there was nothing his father could buy, June had asked if he had enough money to be s & # 39; 39, buy a few hundred Hs.
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	  "Jo had never forgiven June for this because for the first time she had realized that her father's noisy remarks were all the worse as it was. was continually losing his Hs, and his strange grammatical errors. "
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	  The historical context also plays an important role here. In Northern Ireland, people pronounced the letter differently according to their religious faith.
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	  According to Rosen, "aitch" was the Protestant way while "hashish" was Catholic, and "to be wrong could be a dangerous affair".
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	  But what makes it so controversial in Australia?
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	  One theory says that it is because the pronunciation of "haik" was badociated with Irish Catholic immigrants who came here. Because they were typically working clbad and badociated with a lower level of education, this pronunciation was therefore considered "inferior".
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<p>   Macquarie Dictionary notes that there is "only anecdotal evidence" to support this. But even if the theory is not confirmed, the eighth letter of the alphabet continues to carry some almighty stigma.
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	  What is ironic in all of this is that dropping its Hs is historically considered a lower clbad thing to do, yet the "educated" pronunciation of "aitch" implies exactly that.
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	  Let's get to the bottom of things. What is the "right" way to say the letter?
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	  Speaking English today, the right thing to do is to pronounce all your sounds "H" – historian, hotel, hammock, hiccups, highway. The only exception? The letter "H" itself, which is correctly pronounced "aitch".
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	  In the end, it does not really matter. The difference is slight, and it's not as if it makes you impossible to understand.
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	  Moreover, it's a bit ridiculous when you consider all the things we let slip; we are less sensitive to "schedule" (is it "skedjool" or "schedjool"), "youse" (which is technically false, but extremely Australian), and even the letter Z ("zee" or "zed"? ).
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	  Bloody Ow confused.
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