'Haitch' (the thinking goes) has no place in proper Australian English: it's a feature of some varieties of Irish English, was brought to Australia by Irish Catholic educators in the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, and serves as a marker of Irish Catholic education.
H-dropping or aitch-dropping is the deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "H-sound", [h]. The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a purely historical development or as a contemporary difference between dialects.
In Northern Ireland the Catholic population is distinguished from the Protestant by the former saying 'haitch' and the latter 'aitch'. 'Haitch' is the way Catholic primary schools teach H in the alphabet and therefore may well have Papal authority as correct!
'Haitch' (the thinking goes) has no place in proper Australian English: it's a feature of some varieties of Irish English, was brought to Australia by Irish Catholic educators in the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, and serves as a marker of Irish Catholic education.
In Britain, H apparently owes its “haitch” pronunciation to the Catholic Normans, who brought the old French word “hache” with them when they invaded in 1066. With aitch and haitch, it still seems to be linked to the speaker's religion. According to Rosen, “haitch” is the Catholic way and “aitch” is the Protestant way.
In Britain, H owes its name to the Normans, who brought their letter "hache" with them in 1066. Hache is the source of our word "hatchet": probably because a lower-case H looks a lot like an axe. It has certainly caused a lot of trouble over the years.
Name in English
For most English speakers, the name for the letter is pronounced as /eɪtʃ/ and spelled "aitch" or occasionally "eitch". The pronunciation /heɪtʃ/ and the associated spelling "haitch" is often considered to be h-adding and is considered non-standard in England.
In fact, “h” dropping is not unknown in Received Pronunciation, the standard British accent. In addition to dropping the “h” sound in the Gallic loanwords mentioned above, RP speakers used to drop it in “historic,” resulting in uses like “an 'istoric.”
Before discussing their language, it's important to know what people from Australia and New Zealand call themselves and their countries. People from Australia call their homeland “Oz;” a phonetic abbreviation of the country's name, which also harkens to the magical land from L.
The Australian accent is non-rhotic, meaning we only pronounce the letter R when it's followed by a vowel, whereas in rhotic accents like Irish or American, it is pronounced whenever it appears.
Regardless of which pronunciation you use, people will usually know which letter you're referring to! But, keep in mind that zed is technically the correct version in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, India, Australia, and New Zealand, and zee is technically correct in the United States.
H Droppers
Many British English speakers never, ever say /h/; so they pronounce 'hill' and 'ill' identically – /ɪl/. These speakers are known as 'H Droppers' and it's a clear feature of most regional British accents – London included, altogether now: “Harry has hairy hands”.
h is never silent. It is pronounced with a bit of a throat-clearing sound, like the "ch" at the end of Scottish "loch" or German "Bach": dryhten. "H" also is used in combination with the "semi-vowels" "r," "l," and "w" in ways not familiar in Modern English: hlaford, hronræd, hwæt.
Remember that H technically has no sound value. It's there simply to tell you that the consonant preceding it isn't pronounced the way you expect. There is no such sound in Gaelic as a TH sound pronounced as in either THICK or THIS; if those sounds come out of your mouth, you will be wrong.
Glasgow takes the lead as being the hardest UK accent to understand, with 39% of votes; Tyneside emerges as the second most difficult with 20%; and Liverpool follows in third with 18%.
Answer: The Americans have picked this up from Norman- French. "Herb" is a word that would have been very commonly used by the French, so that is why it would have stuck, as oppose to other words in the American dialect such as "helicopter."
The Aussies actually say the “h” in herb while Americans give it a silent “h”.
Mom and Mommy are old-English words, words that are stilled used in Birmingham and most parts of the West Midlands. It is said that when people from the West Midlands went to America many years ago they took the spelling with them, hence Americans use Mom and Mommy.
The British pronunciation is "Herbs" with an "H" while American pronunciation is "erbs" without the "H." Quite simple, eh? Just like this simple vinaigrette recipe to go with your herb salad. "Herb" or "erb," it's really your choice.