h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not as yet they're not.... but I'm ruling nothing out at this stage (well except chilies...)

off to check dictionary.com

*waiting patiently* mmm could do with a scon and some jam and butter and... about now...

Merriam Webster dictionary pronounces it to rhyme with Don
Dictionary dot com pronounces the food rhyming with moan and the place rhyming with Spoon.

Gosh, how did I miss this conversation?

It's pronounced to rhyme with stone, as any fule kno.

Someone mentioned

>> That's as bad as someone in our office who uses the word pacific instead of specific.. drives me quietly mad! <<

Which gives me the perfect opportunity to post this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3y0CD2CoCs

RF

Even before I clicked the link I knew what that was going to be

The answer to this depends on where you are, so you should ask people to give their approximate location, and plot all the answers on a big map. I think you'll find there's a sharp dividing line between the gones and the drones.

I also anticipated Post 105 before clicking the link.

The sad thing when I first saw it is that, even before David Mitchell spoke, I was sitting in my wingback chair, rocking back and forth, muttering: "aitch, AITCH"...

B

aitch somebody shoot that guy...just kidding

The flimsy excuse people give for saying 'haitch' is that the sound should always begin with the letter it's describing.

This leads us to a whole new alphabet, including:

Feff
Haitch
Lell
Memm
Nenn
Quoo
Rarr
Sess
Wubble-you (my favourite)
Xexx
and Yai

Didn't you forget the letter uh-you

I believe that the correct name for the letter is 'haitch', but I can't prove it, so I'll have to do some research...

one source said it was originally from
Heth: the fence, It was a "deep throat" (pharyngeal) consonant. The Greeks used it for the vowel eta (H), but the Romans used it for H.

It's 'haitch' in the Republic of Ireland, 'aitch' in Britain, and I'm told there's a Catholic/Protestant divide in the North.

I don't know about other English-speaking areas or the USA.

I'd rhyme /scone/ with /gone/, but my accent is weird. I think most people around here would rhyme it with /lone/.

And I agree with 2legs: savoury scones can taste excellent with cheese. My mother sometimes bakes them with little bits of cheddar in the mix.

TRiG.

Savory scones should always* be made with some cheese in the mix; a bit* of grated parmazan, and a bit of good strong chedder, and then some chedder to 'top' it no prizes for what I'm going to bake tommorrow alongside fresh bread...

The OED doesn't even acknowledge the 'haitch' pronunciation used, as you say, in Ireland. I'm frankly surprised.

I've just been reading about this fascinating letter: "Its power is that of a simple aspiration or breathing, with just sufficient narrowing of the glottis to be audible before a vowel."

So, the next time you hear that aspirate, you can say, knowingly, "I heard your glottis narrow just there".

Haitch is apparently common and a sign of trying to sound educated. Them wot had a grammer school education say it 'eightch' (I find 'aitch' makes it too high and short. It's a longer, smoother sound in my head).

I know this because my mummy told me. Grammar schooled and very good at English, mater.

Get around it by buying Chorley Cakes.

Delicious.

Ap, one step nearer leaving premod?

Chorley Cakes - lots of juicy raisins in a case of thin shortcrust pastry;

Eccles Cakes - lots of raisins encased in a skin of puff pastry.

Or maybe vice-versa.

The advantage is there's only one way of pronouncing either and it spres fighting.

AP - another step nearer leaving premod.

It's because the mods like cake