Editing H-dropping (section)

===Contemporary H-dropping===
The phenomenon of H-dropping considered as a feature of contemporary English is the omission, in certain [[accent (sociolinguistics)|accent]]s and [[dialect]]s, of this syllable-initial {{IPA|/h/}}, either alone or in the cluster {{IPA|/hj/}}. (For the cluster {{IPA|/hw/}} and its reduction, see [[Pronunciation of English ⟨wh⟩]].)

====Description====
H-dropping, in certain accents and dialects of [[Modern English]], causes words like ''harm'', ''heat'', ''home'' and ''behind'' to be pronounced ''arm'', ''eat'', ''ome'' and ''be-ind'' (though in some dialects an [h] may appear in ''behind'' to prevent hiatus &ndash; see below).

Cases of H-dropping occur in all English dialects in the [[weak and strong forms in English|weak form]]s of [[function word]]s like ''he'', ''him'', ''her'', ''his'', ''had'', and ''have''. The [[it (pronoun)|pronoun ''it'']] is a product of historical H-dropping – the older ''hit'' survives as an emphatic form in a few dialects such as [[Southern American English]], and in the [[Scots language]].<ref>David D. Murison, ''The Guid Scots Tongue'', Blackwodd 1977, p. 39.</ref> Because the {{IPA|/h/}} of  unstressed ''have'' is usually dropped, the word is usually pronounced {{IPA|/əv/}} in phrases like ''should have'', ''would have'', and ''could have''. These can be spelled out in informal writing as "should've", "would've", and "could've". Because {{IPA|/əv/}} is also the weak form of the word ''of'', these words are often erroneously spelled as ''should of'', ''would of'' and ''could of''.<ref>{{cite book | last=van Ostade | first=I.T.B. | title=Describing Prescriptivism: Usage Guides and Usage Problems in British and American English | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2019 | isbn=978-0-429-55814-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvqzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT112 | access-date=2020-02-23}}</ref>

====History====
There is evidence of h-dropping in texts from the 13th century and later. It may originally have arisen through contact with the [[Norman language]], where h-dropping also occurred. [[Pun]]s which rely on the possible omission of the {{IPA|/h/}} sound can be found in works by [[William Shakespeare]] and in other [[Elizabethan era]] dramas. It is suggested that the phenomenon probably spread from the middle to the lower orders of society, first taking hold in urban centers. It started to become [[social stigma|stigmatized]], being seen as a sign of poor education, in the 16th or 17th century.<ref>Milroy, J., "On the Sociolinguistic History of H-dropping in English", in ''Current topics in English historical linguistics'', Odense UP, 1983.</ref><ref>Milroy, L., ''Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English'', Routledge 2002, p. 17.</ref>

====Geographical distribution====
[[File:H-dropping.svg|thumb|250px|H-dropping in the [[English language in England]] (based on Upton and Widdowson, 2006). Dialects in the regions marked ''no /h/'' feature (variable) H-dropping, while those in the regions marked ''/h/'' generally do not, although there is some local variation within these regions.<ref>Upton, C., Widdowson, J.D.A., ''An Atlas of English Dialects'', Routledge 2006, pp. 58–59.</ref>]]

H-dropping occurs (variably) in most of the dialects of the [[English language in England]] and [[Welsh English]], including [[Cockney]], [[West Country English]], [[West Midlands English]] (including [[Brummie dialect|Brummie]]), [[East Midlands English]], most of [[English language in northern England|northern England]] (including [[Yorkshire dialect|Yorkshire]] and [[Lancashire dialect|Lancashire]]), and [[Cardiff English]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Phonetics of Dutch and English|edition=5|location=[[Leiden]]/[[Boston]]|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2002|author1-first=Beverley|author1-last=Collins|author2-first=Inger M.|author2-last=Mees|pages=290–302}}</ref> It is not generally found in [[Scottish English]] and [[Hiberno-English|Irish English]]. It is also typically absent in certain regions of England and Wales, including [[Northumberland]], [[East Anglia]] and parts of [[North Wales|North]] and [[West Wales]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Approaches to the Study of Sound Structure and Speech: Interdisciplinary Work in Honour of Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk |date=21 October 2019 |publisher=Magdalena Wrembel, Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak and Piotr Gąsiorowski |pages=1–398 |isbn=9780429321757|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hh24DwAAQBAJ&dq=h+dropping+north+wales&pg=PT22}}</ref>

H-dropping also occurs in some [[Jamaican English]], and perhaps in other [[Caribbean English]] (including some of [[The Bahamas]]). It is not generally found in [[North American English]], although it has been reported in [[Newfoundland English|Newfoundland]] (outside the [[Avalon Peninsula]]).<ref>[[John C. Wells|Wells, J.C.]], ''Accents of English'', CUP 1982, pp. 564, 568–69, 589, 594, 622.</ref> However, dropping of /h/ from the cluster /hj/ (so that ''human'' is pronounced {{IPA|/'juːmən/}}) is found in some American dialects, as well as in parts of Ireland – see [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Reduction of /hj/|reduction of /hj/]].

====Social distribution and stigmatization====
H-dropping, in the countries and regions in which it is prevalent, occurs mainly in working-class accents. Studies have shown it to be significantly more frequent in lower than in higher social groups. It is not a feature of [[Received Pronunciation|RP]] (the [[prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige]] accent of England), or even of "Near-RP", a variant of RP that includes some regional features.<ref>Wells (1982), pp. 254, 300.</ref> This does not always apply, however, to the dropping of /h/ in weak forms of words like ''his'' and ''her''.

H-dropping in English is widely [[social stigma|stigmatized]], being perceived as a sign of poor or uneducated speech, and discouraged by schoolteachers. [[John C. Wells|John Wells]] writes that it seems to be "the single most powerful pronunciation [[shibboleth]] in England."<ref>Wells (1982), p. 254</ref>

====Use and status of the H-sound in H-dropping dialects====
In fully H-dropping dialects, that is, in dialects without a phonemic {{IPA|/h/}}, the sound {{IPA|[h]}} may still occur but with uses other than distinguishing words. An [[epenthetic]] {{IPA|[h]}} may be used to avoid [[hiatus (linguistics)|hiatus]], so that for example ''the egg'' is pronounced ''the hegg''. It may also be used when any vowel-initial word is emphasized, so that ''horse'' {{IPA|/ˈɔːs/}} (assuming the dialect is also non-rhotic) and ''ass'' {{IPA|/ˈæs/}} may be pronounced {{IPA|[ˈˈhɔːs]}} and {{IPA|[ˈˈhæs]}} in emphatic utterances. That is, {{IPA|[h]}} has become an [[allophone]] of the [[zero onset]] in these dialects.

For many H-dropping speakers, however, a phonological {{IPA|/h/}} appears to be present, even if it is not usually realized – that is, they know which words "should" have an {{IPA|/h/}}, and have a greater tendency to pronounce an [h] in those words than in other words beginning with a vowel. Insertion of [h] may occur as a means of emphasis, as noted above, and also as a response to the formality of a situation.<ref>Wells (1982), p. 322.</ref> [[Sandhi]] phenomena may also indicate a speaker's awareness of the presence of an {{IPA|/h/}} – for example, some speakers might say "a edge" (rather than "an edge") for ''a hedge'', and might omit the [[linking R]] before an initial vowel resulting from a dropped H.

It is likely that the phonemic system of children in H-dropping areas lacks a /h/ entirely, but that social and educational pressures lead to the incorporation of an (inconsistently realized) /h/ into the system by the time of adulthood.<ref>Wells (1982), p. 254.</ref>