H, h [Generally called ‘
AITCH’, and sometimes ‘haitch’ in IrE and AusE]. The 8th
LETTER of the Roman
ALPHABET as used for English. It derives from the Phoenician consonant
heth, ancestor of the Greek letter
eta (
H). The Romans adopted
eta to represent the
ASPIRATE sound /h/.
Sound Value
In English,
h represents a voiceless glottal fricative at the beginning of syllables before a vowel:
hat,
behind,
abhor,
mishap.
Silent H
(1) In syllable-final position, in exclamations such
as ah,
eh,
oh and in such loans (usually Hebrew and West or South Asian)
as chutzpah,
Jehovah,
Messiah,
Sara(
h),
howdah,
veranda(
h). (2) In words of Greek origin, after
r: catarrh,
h(
a)
emorrhage,
rhapsody,
rhinoceros,
rhododendron.
Rhyme (also
rime) is so spelt by analogy with
rhythm. (3) In
Thames,
thyme, and sometimes
Anthony. (4) By elision after a stressed syllable (
annihilate,
shepherd,
Chatham), and after
ex- even at the onset of a stressed syllable (
exhaust,
exhibit,
exhort). (5) In speech, commonly elided in
he,
him,
his,
her in unstressed positions, especially following a consonant:
What did 'e do;
Tell us 'er name. This elision affected the spelling and pronunciation of the Middle English pronoun
hit, resulting in Modern English
it. (6) After
c in words of Greek and Italian origin, but indicating that the
c is pronounced /k/:
archangel,
archive,
chemist,
monarch,
stomach,
technical,
chiaroscuro,
scherzo: and by analogy
ache, modern spelling for earlier
ake. (7) In words of Celtic origin,
ch is generally pronounced /k/ (
clarsach,
loch), but in ScoE and often in IrE is a velar fricative /x/. English in England may have silent
h in Irish names such as
Callaghan, though in IrE and ScoE the
g is generally silent. See
C.
French H
Words derived from French vary in their use of
h. Sometimes
h has never been established in English: for example,
able from Latin
habilis, French
habile. Sometimes
h reached English, but has never been pronounced:
heir,
honest,
honour,
hour. Sometimes as silent French
h has come to be pronounced in standard English:
horrible,
hospital,
host,
hotel,
human,
humour,
humble. In some words
h was introduced in English as in
hermit,
hostage (compare French
ermite,
otage), eventually coming to be pronounced. The
h of
herb is pronounced in standard BrE, but not in standard AmE.
Initial H
The uncertainty of initial
h is shown in the controversy over the use of
an before some words of French origin:
an heroic attempt and an historic occasion as opposed to
a heroic attempt and
a historic occasion. Although it is now generally conventional to say
a hotel, the form
an hotel was once widespread and still occurs in England. In such cases, the
h may or may not be pronounced in BrE (
an heroic attempt or
an 'eroic attempt) and is pronounced in AmE. This use of
an before
h is widely regarded as pretentious (especially when the
h is pronounced), and has always been limited to words in which the first syllable is unstressed: no *
an hopeless case or *
an hot day.
H-dropping
Also
aitch-dropping. In England and Wales there are several
h-less accents, such as Cockney and Brummie, where the pronunciations
an 'orrible 'appening and
an 'opeless case are normal. In written dialogue associated with such accents, unpronounced
h is represented, as here, by an apostrophe.
Digraphs
(1)
H following some consonants may represent special joint values, as in the digraphs
ch,
gh,
ph,
sh,
th,
wh. See
C,
G,
P,
S,
T,
W. (2) This use of
h was first established in Latin, which used
ch,
ph, and
th for the Greek letters
chi,
phi, and
theta. The digraphs
ch,
sh developed in English after the Norman Conquest.
Wh arose analogically by reversing Old English
hw.
Gh was introduced to represent the Old English palatal or velar fricative previously often spelt 3 (
YOGH), itself going back to an old English
h-form (old English
liht becoming
liʒt then
light), and
th was substituted for the Old English letters ð (
ETH) and þ (
THORN). (3)
H can be used in such digraphs because its usual value does not normally occur after consonants, except across syllable boundaries (see below).
Other features
(1) In some circumstances, ambiguity can arise regarding what may or may not be a digraph. Syllable boundaries may be unclear, so that the separate values of
sh in
mishap may be read together as in
bishop. Uncertainty over syllable boundaries has influenced the spelling in
threshold (contrast
withhold). (2) The element
-ham in place-names in England is often ambiguous in terms of pronunciation, the
h being sometimes assimilated into a digraph (as in
Grantham), sometimes not (as in
Clapham). The spelling provides no guidance in such words. (3) In some languages,
h can indicate aspiration of a preceding consonant (
bhakti,
jodhpur,
khaki), but this use usually appears unmotivated to monolingual English speakers, who ignore it, especially in Indian usage (
bharat natyam,
dharma,
Jhabvala,
Madhukar) and often take aspirated
t to be the conventional
th digraph (
hatha yoga,
Marathi).
