I still say maroon but I quite like maroan. Sounds exotic. Almost Italian

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11642588
Aitch vs Haitch
British English dictionaries give aytch as the standard pronunciation for the letter H. However, the pronunciation haytch is also attested as a legitimate variant. We also do not ask broadcasters who naturally say haytch to change their pronunciation but if a broadcaster contacted to ask us, we would tell them that aytch is regarded as the standard pronunciation in British English, people can feel very strongly about this and this pronunciation is less likely to attract audience complaints.

Haytch is a standard pronunciation in Irish English and is increasingly being used by native English-speaking people all across the country, irrespective of geographical provenance or social standing. Polls have shown that the uptake of haytch by younger native speakers is on the rise. Schoolchildren repeatedly being told not to drop Hs may cause them to hyper-correct and insert them where they don't exist.

Jo Kim, BBC Pronunciation Unit


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H
The non-standard haitch pronunciation of h has spread in England, being used by approximately 24% of English people born since 1982 and polls continue to show this pronunciation becoming more common among younger native speakers. Despite this increasing number, careful speakers of English continue to pronounce aitch in the standard way, as the non-standard pronunciation is still perceived as uneducated, at least in most of the United Kingdom. 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).

I know all that already (apart from the phonics) and it proves my point - it's just snobby bollocks (say those 2 words aloud they sound great together). I couldn't believe it when I first moved to England that some people get upset by it. Especially as it does sound so cockney.

Which reminds me. When I first moved to SE London I kept hearing about a place down the road called the Peppies Estate. One day I was out on the bike and I noticed one of the estates between Surrey Quays and Greenwich was called the Pepys Estate.

Devaloy House later turned out to be De Valois House.

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'.

Your completely at liberty to do that. I grew up with haitch but have no problem with others saying aitch. I find it sounds cockney. I find it odd that it people think it sounds less bogan.

Does zee and ezed annoy you too?

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.

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.

There are a lot of migrant groups in the UK, some of them from apparently English-speaking countries, just like here.

I do wonder whether the verbal skills are quite what they should be in Australia. 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.

My friend told me that he constantly has to repeat and spell his name.
It's Smith!
Honest.I kid you not.

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

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