DiscoverGrammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better WritingFrom 'hwhat' to 'what': Tracing a letter's disappearing act. Barkhouse.
From 'hwhat' to 'what': Tracing a letter's disappearing act. Barkhouse.

From 'hwhat' to 'what': Tracing a letter's disappearing act. Barkhouse.

Update: 2024-01-301
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966. We explore the rise and fall of the letter H: Debates over its name ("haitch" or "aitch"?) and why a once-prestigious pronunciation like "hwhat" now seems old-fashioned. 

The "haitch" segment was written by Kate Burridge, a professor of linguistics at Monash University, and Catherine McBride, a professor of psychology at Chinese University of Hong Kong. It originally appeared on "The Conversation" and appears here through a Creative Commons license.

| Transcript: https://grammar-girl.simplecast.com/episodes/letter-h/transcript

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From 'hwhat' to 'what': Tracing a letter's disappearing act. Barkhouse.

From 'hwhat' to 'what': Tracing a letter's disappearing act. Barkhouse.

Mignon Fogarty, Catherine McBride, Kate Burridge