Originally Posted by HelenTD (Post 9388430)

I had never heard 'h' pronounced as 'haytch' until I moved to Australia. I did live in London for about 10 years, including living and working with people from East London. To me, 'haytch' sounds completely bogan. I have ensured that my children say 'aytch':).

Originally Posted by HelenTD (Post 9388430)

I had never heard 'h' pronounced as 'haytch' until I moved to Australia. I did live in London for about 10 years, including living and working with people from East London. To me, 'haytch' sounds completely bogan. I have ensured that my children say 'aytch':).

Originally Posted by Alfresco (Post 9388954)

I never heard it pronounced 'haytch' either until I moved to England!

I notice it's a mix here in Oz.

'aytch' it is for us.

Originally Posted by Alfresco (Post 9388954)

I never heard it pronounced 'haytch' either until I moved to England!

I notice it's a mix here in Oz.

'aytch' it is for us.

Originally Posted by ukecadet (Post 9389016)

Often when I spell my address over the phone and I say 'aytch' the person on the other end will say do you mean 'haytch'
Always a bone of contention in our house.

Originally Posted by HelenTD (Post 9389077)

I do wonder whether the verbal skills are quite what they should be in Australia:unsure:. For a national of travellers, I find it quite rare to come across someone (of mature age) who can speak even a smattering of another language. Hopefully younger Australians can speak a few words of another language, at least for all those trips to Bali. Even if you have a quite straightforward name, phonetically easy, they seem to struggle with pronunciation or spelling. I'm not talking a Polish or Sri Lankan name, here, just a Anglo-Celtic type of name.

Originally Posted by ukecadet (Post 9389081)

My friend told me that he constantly has to repeat and spell his name.
It's Smith!

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 9386231)

These people who find the Australian way of saying things so amusing, do you all speak English with no local inflection or dialect? Is every word spoken as described in the Oxford Dictionary?

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9388196)

it's just snobby bollocks

Originally Posted by Helen

The pronunciation haitch followed the introduction of Phonics and was designed to help prevent working class children from dropping the initial H in words such as hospital (otherwise pronounced as 'ospital).

Originally Posted by BadgeIsBack (Post 9389102)

I've often wondered that. I suspect the people who complain the most about Australian English have accents which would be unintelligible by many. Perhaps they have trouble finding themselves understood and have to level the playing field.

I've said it before - and I will say it again. I find the middle-of-the road white collar Melbourne speech preferable in accent and diction to pretty much any dialect of English found anywhere outside the best of UK English. Amongst other things, the 'orrible glottal stop has made UK English truly awful - in my opinion. 'Ate it. Took me awhile to realise what a colleague meant when he commented on how English people talk with gaps in their words and not even in whole sentences. Quite funny.





Snobby? It is everyone's duty to seek out and educate a member of the working class at least once a day :blink:

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9389293)

Go on. Say snobby bollocks aloud. It sounds great! :thumbup:

Originally Posted by Pollyana (Post 9389487)

Originally Posted by BadgeIsBack (Post 9390329)

My balls are not snobby they can be found in all levels of people.

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9390547)

:blink:

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 9391028)

I think he means he sleeps around and doesn't care what sex it's with.:sneaky:

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391183)

I read it several times. Each time conjured up a different image. I gave up after 5 attempts. :lol:

Originally Posted by BadgeIsBack (Post 9391310)

Yes indeed....

MP : I am not queer - not that it really matters...

Originally Posted by moneypenny20 (Post 9391401)

I never said you were. However I have noticed over the years that whenever the subject comes up (:blink:) you feel the need to deny it. Now obviously that doesn't mean anything but..........

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391406)

A definite sign. Gay as cake. :thumbup:

Originally Posted by Dreamy (Post 9391427)

Is cake gay?

Surely it would depend on the type of cake being discussed.

I can't imagine a rich fruit cake being anything other than strictly heterosexual.

Pavlova, on the other hand..

Originally Posted by Dreamy (Post 9391427)

Is cake gay?

Surely it would depend on the type of cake being discussed.

I can't imagine a rich fruit cake being anything other than strictly heterosexual.

Pavlova, on the other hand..

Originally Posted by Dreamy (Post 9391427)

Is cake gay?

Surely it would depend on the type of cake being discussed.

I can't imagine a rich fruit cake being anything other than strictly heterosexual.

Pavlova, on the other hand..

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391484)

Fruit cake. Heterosexual? You're kidding :blink::blink:

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391484)

Fruit cake. Heterosexual? You're kidding :blink::blink:

Originally Posted by Pollyana (Post 9391587)

:rofl: There are whole pages of gay cake on the internet, believe it or not!!

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391590)

Ah! This is a good one.

http://www.gaycakes.com.au/all-cakes...a-day-cake.jpg

It's like the flag the army used to use? :sneaky:

Originally Posted by Rambi (Post 9391484)

Fruit cake. Heterosexual? You're kidding :blink::blink:

Originally Posted by sammax (Post 9378616)

And they also say oction instead of auction, imbecyle instead of imbeceel (imbecile)
pedophile instead of paedophile and uryneinstead of urin (urine) and dayboo instead of daybyoo (debut)!!:huh:

Originally Posted by sammax (Post 9392828)

ok, so what about maroon and marone??:huh:

Originally Posted by sammax (Post 9392828)

ok, so what about maroon and marone??:huh:

Originally Posted by Dreamy (Post 9392945)

Is it really any different to how some words are pronounced in the UK? Berkshire/barkshire, St-John/Sinjun, that's only two, because I'm slightly hungover and too tired to think of more :D

Words are what they are - if we started pronouncing everything it way it should be pronounced we probably wouldn't have a clue what anyone was saying - I give you 'ough' m'lud.