AN historic???

Question

Why in God's name do columnists, authors, and news/sports broadcasters insist on putting the word "an" before the word "historic"? Historic does not start with a vowel nor does it start with a vowel sound! I hear people saying things like, "...it was AN historic event..." but never anything like, "I was carrying AN history book," or "I teach AN history class." Someone please help me understand the reason for this common grammatical error!!!

You use 'an' in front of the word 'hour' because, unlike the 'h' in historic, the 'h' in hour is silent. Because the 'h' in hour is silent, hour sounds like 'our' which begins with a vowel sound. Thanks for playing Raleigh H, even though it is YOU who is wrong.

Answer 1

There are good historical and phonological reasons why "an" may appear before a word beginning with /h/:

1) the initial /h/ IS not pronounced
*generally in "hours" hono(u)r"
*American English - "herb"
*some dialects "humble", "hotel"

2) history of a word - that is, the /h/ USED to be silent:
there are a number of words whose initial /h/ was originally not pronounced, esp. those derived from (Old) French, which did not pronounce it (sometimes did not even spell it)

Some of these (examples listed in #1) STILL do not pronounce the /h/ in many or all English dialects.

"history" - from French "histoire" USED to have a silent h in English generally.

That may not seem to help, since, as you note, the h IS pronounced (was 'added back') in most English dialects nowadays.

But notice that you are NOT actually talking about the word "history" (that would be "a history" in most dialects).

You cannot make the assumption that, when the /h/ sound began to be used for "history" it AUTOMATICALLY was ALSO used for "historic" and "historical"


Why is that?

3) Because the h of 'historic(al)' appears as part of a different in sound pattern. Specifically, the syllable starting with /h/ LACKS an ACCENT

In fact, in this case the SECOND syllable is accented, making the initial /h/ much WEAKER, only very slightly pronounced or even silent altogether. (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 we say "A HISTORY" (unless, of course, you're Cockney)

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)

Notice that, 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"

Now if you were to try some of these expressions in a search engine you would likely find that "an historic" and "an historical" are much more common (in proportion to "a historic" "a historical") than these other examples. That leads to the FINAL(?) factor that affects pronunciation.

4) HABIT! That is, we're USED to hearing it that way, and so it just seems right, even if it does not follow the "rules" we may generally us for such cases.

Thus, the reason 'historic' and 'historical' are far more likely to be preceded by "an" than other words that might "qualify" is that they are more COMMON words or expressions. People are used to hearing them this way. This is hardly unusual. In any language the LESS common a word is in everyday speech the MORE likely it is speakers apply the "general rules" to that word. Thus, irregular verbs in a language [forms of to be, come, go, sit, etc.] are COMMON words.

Answer 2

Calm down. It's not an error. I'll tell you the reason.

When a word starts with 'h' and the first syllable is not stressed, 'an' is often used (it's optional really).
e.g. an historical event; an hilarious tale; an hospitable gesture; an horrendous accident; an habitual liar; an hexagonal shape.
It does seem to happen mostly with the word 'historic'.

You don't say 'an history class' because the word 'history' has the stress on the first syllable.

There you are.
.

Answer 3

Both are technically acceptable. In the UK, most dialects do not pronounce historic with an opening consonant of any kind. Because of this, "an historic" is just as natural for them as "an hour" is for you. Of course for them, "an history book" would be fine too.

I've never actually seen someone single out "historic" like you mentioned, but I can understand how annoying that could get.

Answer 4

The word history doesnt start with the usual "sharp consonant sound" like "T" or "B" you just push out air to make the H sound not unlike vowel sounds.

To some people it sounds "right" to put "an" in front of an H word.....see the irony.

Answer 5

uhh well, sry but your actually wrong on this one... just as you say "AN" hour ago... its the same principle, i dont understand y to be honest but thats the rule so i guess we gotta live with it

Answer 6

stupidity