Am I just a pedant? I simply detest it when people say "Haitch" instead of "Aitch". Nothing sounds more wrong than when the "Aitch" in NHS is pronounced as "Haitch". It is slike fingernails on a blackboard.
Never heard anyone say FUNEDRAL but I hear a lot of people say the following:
PACIFIC instead of specific
SKELLINGTON (skeleton)
REFUGE collector instead of REFUSE
In written form on Answerbank LOOSE is very often written instead of LOSE
And most school students write "Don't No" rather than "Don't Know" and "Would OF" instead of "would have"
A parent of a student wrote to me complaining that " this homwork woz 2 hard 4 my daurter"
Yes, much of the English language has been affected by American pronunciation, such as "harass". English puts the emphasis on the first syllable and American on the second. I think Frank mispronouncing it in "Some Mothers Do Av Em" had something to do with popularizing it.