when what I meant was, "What did you say ?" I wasn't alone in this and the common response from a parent would be, " 'ay is for 'orses." escort girls in San Antonio TX 'h' was mostly redundant in London back in the thirties but there were plenty of 'orses around.

I think hey is a horrible greeting, since in English English there's an implied exclamation mark, as with oi! As in "Hey you! Stop that!" So it's another importation from the States, as hi was originally, although hi is very widely used in Great Britain now.

Nick - I (also a Brit) totally agree, both on pronunciation and meaning. I just checked it in The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and was rather surprised not to find it under hoy, thinking oi was more a dialect thing. Read more