h-dropping

alternative aitch-dropping

1. human sciencesThe omission of an /h/ sound normally present in a word, making the word "home" sound like "'ome", for example.

   Synonyms: mute h, silent h, unaspirated h

alternative aitch-dropping

1. not comparableUndergoing h-dropping.

   In England, the most up-to-date research suggests that some 13th-century dialects were h-dropping, but by the time elocution experts came along in the 18th century, they were pointing out what a crime it is.

   2013 November 4, Michael Rosen, “Why H is the most contentious letter in the alphabet”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Nov 2013

   2 more examples

   More local than us, apparently; I find out that Janet complains that ‘John’s from Herefordshire but he’s not real Herefordshire.’ […] But if I’m honest, I know what she means: I don’t have an h-dropping local accent and speak instead in a detached RP rumble.

   2009 May 21, John Lewis-Stempel, “Beginnings”, in The Wild Life: A Year of Living on Wild Food, London: Black Swan, published 18 March 2010, →ISBN, pages 12–13

   Apart from the two ‘default’ terms of guest-house and inn, they are all host- or harbour-related: hostry, host, hostel, hostelry, hostelar, host-house; harbergery, harbergage. (The initial h- was often omitted in the spelling, indicating the h-dropping character of contemporary pronunciation.)

   2014 September 9, David Crystal, “From guest house to B & B, and hotel to floatel: Words for inns and hotels”, in Words in Time and Place: Exploring Language through The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 137