usage ridicule

[W Brewer]

It is the same old story. Indo-Europeans lost their laryngeals. Greeks
suffered psilosis and eventually stopped their rough breathing altogether.
The heirs of Latin completely dropped their /h-/. And from French <hache>
we get ... <aitch>?  But while the Germans staunchly insist on their
initial [h-],  we poor Anglophones, of such confused heritage, simply
cannot make up our minds.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org