Any other regions that pronounce "hair" as "air" in British English? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcmWOGTZ8TU 1:18-1:33 Lily cole replies, "Sometimes, yeah, for sure, when I was doing my hair in th

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Any other regions that pronounce "hair" as "air" in British English? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcmWOGTZ8TU 1:18-1:33 Lily cole replies, "Sometimes, yeah, for sure, when I was doing my hair in the morning like so, quite that. But now I tend to... I'm trying separate the two, but more like either working or school, You know this cross isn't quite convenient time to do something." But, she pronounces "hair" as "air". Is it confined to her Devon accent? Or are there more regions that pronounce "hair" as "air"?By the way, having regional accent doesn't mean someone is uneducated.

Sep 30, 2014 7:10 PM

Answers · 11

I've just listened to the interview, and she didn't say 'hair' at all. What she said didn't even sound like 'air'. What she said was: 'When I was doing my A-levels I was modelling a lot, so...' A levels (pronounced Ay- levels) are exams taken in UK schools at the age of 17/18. And, by the way, she doesn't have a Devon accent. Not everyone in Britain has the accent of the region where they happen to have been born. Like most educated young people in Britain, she has a fairly neutral non-regional accent.

September 30, 2014

It isn't just the word hair, but other words beginning with h, too. Dropping the 'h' sound is replaced with an apostrophe when the word is written: "I'm 'aving my 'air done at 'ome," she said. Dropping the 'h' is not considered 'good' English, as it doesn't reflect the correct spelling, so it's only used for informal speech.

September 30, 2014