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Isn't this an american english vs british english thing? I was puzzled by "an historic" for a long time and then I heard a british person say it and it made sen
by kennywinker 4y ago
Isn't this an american english vs british english thing? I was puzzled by "an historic" for a long time and then I heard a british person say it and it made sense. Because personally I pronounce the h in historic, hypothesis, hitter, and happy virtually identically.
- kelnos 4y agoNative American English speaker here (from northeast/mid-Atlantic, but living in NorCal for 20 years now), and I generally mostly drop the "h" in "historic", such that "an" sounds reasonable. Agree that dropping the "h" from the other words you mention would feel weird, though.
- kennywinker 4y agoI’m in the PNW, so a fairly different accent. If I say “an historic” the h gets minimized, but “a historic” sounds perfectly natural to my ear and “an” sounds wrong with all the other example words.
- alistairSH 4y agoMid-Atlantic here. I'd say "a historic" with the harder 'h' sound. "an historic" sounds to me like "anhistoric" (as in "lacking history" kind of like "amoral")
- hammock 4y agoThe word is "ahistoric," and ask yourself why you thought it was "anhistoric"... it's related to the reason why some say "an historic." ;) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ahistoric https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ahistoric
- alistairSH 4y agoLanguage is so messy. I say "a historic" and "ahistoric" differently, I think. The first with a hard 'h' and a slight pause between words. The second with soft/no 'h' and no pause. If I heard somebody say "anhistoric" (soft 'h', no pause), I'd think they meant "ahistoric" not "an historic". Of course, context probably makes it clear regardless. Growing up in DC with Scottish parents was always fun. Rolled Rs, different "wh" sound (Scottish English: wheels vs US English: weels) (noticeable expulsion of air on the 'wh' sound). Mary (lady), merry (happy), marry (get hitched) all should sound different to me, but in MidAtlantic English they're often the same. Same for Kerrie vs Carrie.
- jjgreen 4y agoNative BE speaker here, I've seen and heard "an historic" (like ahnistoric) from posher BE speakers than me, but never "an hypothesis" (ahnypothesis?) from whichever social class ... possibly I hang around with the wrong crowd?