why do americans pronounce the word 'herb'..'erb' since when did it have a silent 'h'?!

Answer 1

In defense of Americans, I dated an English guy and learned the proper pronunciation of "Birmingham" as well as the 'proper' spelling of "aluminium", "colour", "neighbour", and many other things with what I consider to be unnecessary letter U's.

Another thing that struck me... the British are afraid of the letter Z, apparently. Sure, you use it for things like "zebra", but give you the word "realize" and you change it to an S (realise).

I guess we all just have to love our differences... though I'll confess the first time I heard Jamie call a popsicle an "ice lolly" I laughed for 10 minutes straight. ;)

Answer 2

This requires an analysis of the history of the English language.

Early on, a lot of words (particularly those of French origin) were pronounced with a silent "h". This was true at the time of Shakespeare which, roughly speaking, is when the language was exported to America.

From then on the two varieties of English on both sides of the Atlantic developed and changed independently. In Britain, the aspirated (pronounced) "h" became widely accepted over the years so that we now pronounce the "h" in HERB (for example) but some groups, like Cockneys, still have a silent "h". In contrast, on the other side of the Atlantic, the "h" remained silent. We still have a memory of this in the (now rare, but still occasionally heard) use of "an" instead of "a" before words spelt with "h" as the first letter - "an hotel", "an historic" etc.

I also remember, but have failed to verify, my father telling me that the Cockney pronunciation of words with a silent "h" ('e rode an 'orse etc) was a copy of the earlier "posh" pronunciation but that "posh" pronunciation had moved on and introduced an aspirated "h".

You could argue that the American pronunciation of "'erb" rather than "Herb" is the correct one as it is the original. I still choose to pronounce it "Herb" though!

Answer 3

Herb is a fine example of a type of linguistic conservatism found in American English. Until the sixteenth century the word was usually spelled "erb"-- it was a French word, who didn't say the "h" either. Right up until to the nineteenth century, long after the 'h' had been added due to further icky French influence, that was also the way it was said. "erb."

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century colonists toward the Americas took their pronunciation with them. During the nineteenth century, the British people started to sound the first letter, in a "spelling pronunciation." So, the Americans are saying it the old fashioned way, and the Brits are playing around with their new-fangled words.

Answer 4

American English was heavily influenced by Webster's Dictionary. I suspect that words like herb and filet were shown with the French pronunciation, with a silent h and a silent t. The dictionary is also the reason the accent flattened out and all the vowels are pronounced especially as the country moved west.

Answer 5

English is the hardest language to learn if it's not your first language because the rules are not consistent. SO... in other words, the h is not ALWAYS pronounced or always silent. It depends on the word. "a" is pronounced a variety of ways as well. H doesn't always have to have a sound. Thats why the word is pronounced "erb".

Answer 6

Because we borrowed the word from French, which spells it with an 'h', but does not pronounce the 'h'. The pronunciation with 'h' is a later variant called a "spelling pronunciation". When people see something spelled they try to pronounce it the way it is spelled rather than the way that everyone else pronounces it. In America, the word "opossum" is correctly pronounced "possum", but people who have never heard the correct pronunciation pronounce the 'o' at the front.

Answer 7

Because some Americans speak French and they choose the word "herbes" to be pronounced like the French do (since H is always mute in French). Probably because the ancestral knowledge of most herbs originates from Europe. Voilà.

Answer 8

You say shedule, we say schedule...
You say herb, we say erb
You say tomahto, we say tomato
You say ello, we say hello

Who cares? Everywhere you go, people will be pronouncing words differently. In America, as well as England, different parts of the country have their own accents...so in some parts they say these words differently than you or I. I've heard Americans laughing at British accents...I embrace these differences...What would the world be like if we all spoke the same?? Boooorring.
Peace.

Answer 9

i think technically it was alway silent, like when the french say hotel they pronounce it 'otel'. Similarly, words like herbs and haricot beans have often been appropriated from languages which do not sound the first h sound as strongly as english speakers do. German words like haus ( house) which do have strong h sounds have come to us in england and influenced how we say herb and hotel. But i would think like many things in the english language, no one rule is correct as time, tradition and fashions have meant that strong or weak h sounds have come and gone.

Answer 10

more and likely people began to pronounce it as herb with the 'H', but as the years went by, people either got to lazy to say the 'H' or it was said to fast to often so you couldn't hear the 'H' and younger people learned as 'erb'.