Consonants H

H-dropping or the non-realization of /h/ in initial position in stressed syllables before vowels (e.g. in happy ['æpi] or hedge  ) is one of the best-known non-standard features of British English. It has achieved a high level of public awareness, is clearly stigmatized and commonly regarded as uneducated. For Wells (1982: 254) H-dropping is even “the single most powerful pronunciation shibboleth in England”. Its presence in Channel Island English is hardly surprising. Moreover, there are individual items in which the initial position of /h/ is filled by a semivowel [j], as for example in hear  or head [jεd] , parallels of which can be found in English dialects, too. It is an intriguing question to ask whether there possibly is an influence from Channel Island French on H-dropping. Nearly all varieties of French, including Standard French, do not realize initial /h/. But the Norman French dialects of the Channel Islands belong to the few varieties of French that have indeed preserved initial Germanic /h/, as e.g. in [haʃ] (Standard French hache ‘axe’) or [humar] (Standard French homard ‘lobster’). Consequently, initial /h/ is a familiar sound for speakers of Norman French and should not lead to H-dropping in English. However, it has to be pointed out that the realization of initial /h/ in Channel Island French is by no means categorical. Individual speakers may vary considerably in their use of initial /h/ and it appears likely that this variability has some effect on H-dropping in English.