H-Dropping
Dropping your aitches
Read more
H-dropping occurs when speakers of non-standard and/or regional varieties of English do not pronounce “h” when RP speakers do.
Examples:
house
- RP /haʊs/
- Non-standard: /aʊs/
here
- RP /hɪə/
- Non-standard: /ɪə/
Here is an example of a young woman from Yorkshire:
I (h)ate rain.
And a man from London (Cockney)
(H)ave you (h)eard the news about the match?
H-dropping is and has been one of the most stigmatized phenomena in non-standard speech.
“In Britain, the presence or absence of this sound in speech is one of the key factors in the social evaluation of an individual's use of language or, as the OED expressed it, it ‘has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position’.” (1)
Many of you know the story of Eliza Dolittle, whose accent marked her as a person of the underclass. Let's watch a video of her trying to pronounce "her aitches".
Def. SHIbBOLETH
PYGMALION (1938)
RP speakers do not normally drop their aitches when pronouncing words with lexical meaning like heart, home, heat.
However, they do drop their aitches when pronouncing function words such as him, her, his in rapid speech. Most people don't notice this. Examples:
Listen
Not all regional speakers drop their aitches. H-dropping is not found in all regional accents. In Geordie, the accent of Newcastle, and surrounding areas, “h” is pronounced. (2)
Quiz
If you are correct, you go on to the next page.
01
The h is dropped in has: He ain't got the bottle to do it, has he?
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
02
The h is dropped in her: Blessed, dear of her!
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
03
The h is dropped in heights: The blue waters grew to enormous heights.
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
04
The h is dropped in home: We went for the bus, the 14X bus to come home.
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
05
The h is dropped in Has: Has he been yet?
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Extra stuff
References
(1) "h" Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. OUP, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. (2) Watt, Dominic and Allen, William 2003. Tyneside English. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33/2: 267-271.
Click below to try again
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Transcript
H-Dropping
Dropping your aitches
Read more
H-dropping occurs when speakers of non-standard and/or regional varieties of English do not pronounce “h” when RP speakers do.
Examples:
house
here
Here is an example of a young woman from Yorkshire:
I (h)ate rain.
And a man from London (Cockney)
(H)ave you (h)eard the news about the match?
H-dropping is and has been one of the most stigmatized phenomena in non-standard speech.
“In Britain, the presence or absence of this sound in speech is one of the key factors in the social evaluation of an individual's use of language or, as the OED expressed it, it ‘has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position’.” (1)
Many of you know the story of Eliza Dolittle, whose accent marked her as a person of the underclass. Let's watch a video of her trying to pronounce "her aitches".
Def. SHIbBOLETH
PYGMALION (1938)
RP speakers do not normally drop their aitches when pronouncing words with lexical meaning like heart, home, heat.
However, they do drop their aitches when pronouncing function words such as him, her, his in rapid speech. Most people don't notice this. Examples:
Listen
Not all regional speakers drop their aitches. H-dropping is not found in all regional accents. In Geordie, the accent of Newcastle, and surrounding areas, “h” is pronounced. (2)
Quiz
If you are correct, you go on to the next page.
01
The h is dropped in has: He ain't got the bottle to do it, has he?
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
02
The h is dropped in her: Blessed, dear of her!
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
03
The h is dropped in heights: The blue waters grew to enormous heights.
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
04
The h is dropped in home: We went for the bus, the 14X bus to come home.
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Quiz
05
The h is dropped in Has: Has he been yet?
TRUE
Play
FALSE
Extra stuff
References
(1) "h" Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. OUP, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. (2) Watt, Dominic and Allen, William 2003. Tyneside English. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33/2: 267-271.
Click below to try again