Why in USA do people pronounce "herb" as "erb"? Ignorance? Illiteracy?

Question

And do they also drop the "h" on other words? Do they stay at "'otels" or eat "'am and eggs". And why in UK is it correct to call it "an hotel" when we should pronounce the "h". And why do some people when naming that letter say "haitch"? This is posted in response to those who detected some sort of bias in my question!

I like the idea of the "French" derivation...

Answer 1

The Americans didn't "change" the pronunciation of this word, not even "under French influence" (which is rather unlikely for American English anyway!)

The explanation is that the word itself came into English from French, and was initially pronounced in the French manner, just as many other English h-initial words borrowed from French still are -- hono(u)r, honest, hour, heir. (The loss of pronunciation of the h actually goes back to Late Latin, which also dropped the h is spelling.)

S, in this case, it is the common BRITISH pronunciation in which the h is now pronounced hat is the change. (In the period of the American colonial settlements the h of "herb" was silent across British English dialects as well.)

Of course, the shift to pronouncing the "h" in such words (as it was in the Latin original form, before the change in French), has been very erratic across English dialects. Thus for words llike humble, history and hotel, just as for herb, there are English dialects which pronounce the h, and others that do not. (That's not including English dialects that drop ALL the aitches, whether the word was French or not!)

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As for the matter of "an hotel" and "an historic(al)" -- it may be significant that both these words were likewise French silent h-words. That is, this origin may explain how they came to have an "an".

But why did they often KEEP "an" where other words shifted to "a" ? (esp. why do many say "a history" but "an historical event"?)
The best explanation has to do with the WEAKNESS of this h in syllables which lack of ACCENT, all of which may make it easier to say with "an" before it.

Specifically, when the SECOND syllable is accented, the initial /h/ is much WEAKER, perhaps only very slightly pronounced (It seems especially weak if the following vowel is formed in the front of the mouth -- a, i, e (as opposed to vowels made further back -- o, u)

So, if the first syllable HAS an accent (especially the MAIN accent of the word) it is preceded by "a" --thus most say "A HISTORY" (unless speaking a dialect in which that h is silent)

To get the sense of how this works, just try saying the word "historic" all by itself. You may notice that you scarcely pronounce the /h/. Even if you do, it may feel like it takes extra energy do so (whereas when you say "history" the 'energy' is already supplied by accenting the syllable)

[Some have said 'accented' or 'unaccented', but this is not quite correct. When the SECOND syllable is accented, the first syllable has the LEAST accent; if a LATER syllable has the primary accent the first syllable may still have a SECONDARY accent, and the 'rule' just described does not apply. Examples: 'hospitality' 'hippopotamus']

In fact, in expressions like "an historic..." many find that the inclusion of the /n/ can actually make the words easier to pronounce (though in that case the /h/ is usually only VERY slightly pronounced).

Other examples where "an" may be found (all of which have an accent on the second syllable): "an hereditary title" [vs. "a HERitage], "an habitual liar" [vs. "a HA-bit"], cf. "an hysterical child"

Answer 2

None of the answers so far have addressed the name of the letter H .
Although I call it "aitch" (because that's what I've been brought up to call it), I have to admit that "haitch" is a more logical name, as this gives a much better idea of its sound. I've got a feeling that this version of the name came originally from Ireland and I think it would be quite a good idea the name were officially changed to 'haitch'.

Answer 3

"erb" just happens to be the American pronunciation of the word "herb". When I travelled out of the US for the first time, I actually felt the other people were illiterate for pronouncing the h. Most people pronounce it without the h in the US, and the people who do pronounce it are generally looked down upon as being "ignorant" and "illiterate". So, before you make judgements, just realize that American English is not British English or whatever.

Answer 4

They dont pronounce the 'h' because thats how they were taught.
Remember that the yanks are made up of all the races of the world, this means that pronunciation will be skewed because of different influences.
It's a misconception that Americans speak english because they dont.
English people speak english. Americans speak american.
There are too many linguistic differences for it to be considered as English, while the words sound like they are english, they are in actual fact american.
As an example of this,
Russki is the russian word for Russian, right?
Actually wrong. Russki is the english version of the russian word for Russian.
русский is the russian word for Russian the same as ロシア語 is the Japanese word for russian.

Remember Americans speak American and the English speak English.

Answer 5

No, regional dialect variation, which as you may recall, is a basic principle of linguistics for globalized languages like English. At all events, why "illiteracy," since pronunciation in English, regardless of nationality, is non-orthophonetic (not pronounced as written)?

If you are interested in the history of this regional variation in the pronunciation of this word, there are two theories. One is that it is the influence of French from the colonial period of North America, which has led to the aspiration of "h" sounds in local dialects in several parts of the US and eastern Canada--this local dialect "swallowing" of the initial consonantal sound eventually spread to become a national regional dialect pattern. A second theory is that it instead comes from, believe it or not, some mid-Atlantic dialect patterns from British North Americans, particularly working-class British relocated to British North America in colonial times, who brought with them the already extant pattern in English working-class dialect of dropping initial consonants (think of Cockney dialect in London, for example, or the old Yorkshire accent).

Hope this enlightens you.

Or were you really not interested in linguistic explanations, but just in invective against people from the United States?

Answer 6

French - until the 7 years war (what the american's call the French Indian Wars), many parts of the US were claimed by France. England and the colonial troops captured most of them, including Canada. But in doing so, we armed the colonists with cannon, and they then turned around and used them on us.

Answer 7

Whenever we can, we conserve energy by making certain letters silent. We're trying to make up for the British habit of adding letters to perfectly good words, for no particular reason. Honour and colour, for example, were perfectly happy without the extra u's.

And "programme"? A useless, vestigial m *and* a silent e? Please. And don't even start me on "haematology". The "ae" went out with the Roman Empire.

I can't believe you're giving *us* a hard time.

Answer 8

Not everyone in the US pronounces it that way. It's something called "regional dialect" genius, but maybe you're just too ignorant or illiterate to know that. So here's a word I'm sure you've heard many times in conjunction with the phrase, " you are a.....". Jacka.ss.

Answer 9

that is in simple terms the way that that is said in accordance to him and his kinfolk. It in simple terms looks extraordinary to us human beings. we anticipate of that by technique of the spelling, that it could be said Fav (like in '5' yet with a short 'A' sound) Ray or Ree. Many overseas names are literally not said like they are spelled. The Italian chick on one in all those 'Housewives' coach replaced into in simple terms declaring the different day, that individuals continuously pronounce her call the incorrect way. I ignore the precise spelling of her very last call, yet human beings pronounce it as "Jew-dice", and she or he stated that that is actual something like Jew-day-chay. Many human beings sound so stupid at the same time as they are vacationing places like Spain and France, and they are trying to communicate the language there lol. I used to get a huge kick outta listening to them in Spanish type attempting to pronounce words lol. maximum individuals's difficulty the following with foriegn languages is, that they save attempting to make it English LOL at the same time as that is not.

Answer 10

At least you can understand what we say. I've tried listening to BBC and the accents and pronunciations are so atrocious you have no idea what is being said half the time. So take your feigned snobbery elsewhere, Abdul.