"Des Higgins" wrote in message

Most people in Ireland say haitch and have done so for many years.
If you
say aitch here you sound pretentious (or protestant :-).
Pronunciations change over time and space. Some Oirish
pronunciations (e.g.
tay for tea and daycent for decent) are actually fossilised
Elizabethan
pronunciations but now sound ignorant and paddyish to UK ears.

Some time ago, I was listening to an etymologist on the radio who was
talking about this very subject. Although she didn't specifically say
so, many of the historic pronunications of words that she gave as
examples, sounded exactly as Americans still pronounce them - ie,
Britain had been the place where the change had taken place (in the
18thC) but the original pronunciation had remained the same in the US.
One example I specifiaclly remember was the pronunciation of the word
"bath" - the long 'a' had changed to a more clipped one in the UK but
not in the US.