'an historical novel'

[Meja]

Hello,

My grammar book suggests using "an" before "historical" and similar words when there is "an unaccented syllable beginning with h", e.g. an historical novel.
This grammar book may be outdated though. Would you say that it's possible to use both "a" and "an" in such cases?

 

[Meja]

I always stick to the most common forms when I should say or write something. I'd just like to know what possible alternatives are. And of course, I'm primarily interested in what's used in modern language.

Does the same go for "an hotel"? (I see that a dictionary also gives the pronunciation /oʊˈtel/.)


When it comes to "a herb" and "an herb", is the latter used only in AmE? If it is used in BrE as well, is such pronunciation also seen as outdated?

 

[emsr2d2]

My grandfather (born 1921) was the last person I knew who said "an (h)istorical", "an (h)otel" etc. Until about twenty years ago, you could still hear it sometimes from BBC newsreaders but I'm pretty sure they've dropped it in favour of the fairly universal "a historical", "a hotel" etc.

I have only ever heard "an (h)erb" in AmE. The first time I was offered "erb toast" at an American restaurant, I was completely baffled. There were two reasons for that - 1) The "h" at the start of "herb" was not used and 2) we don't have anything called "herb toast" in the UK. The closest thing we have is "garlic bread" (which is, in fact, baked bread with garlic butter!)

 

[jutfrank]

There are plenty of BrE-speakers I know who do not pronounce the initial h of any words, which leads to forms such as an house, an half and an helicopter. Though considered non-standard, this is very common, both regionally and sociologically.

 

[emsr2d2]

The BrE speakers I know who do that aren't doing it out of some attempt to stick to past "correct pronunciation". They're just too lazy to pronounce the "h" so it's easier to stick "an" in front of what is now a vowel sound. I would say that some people still consider those that "drop their aitches" to be very common (lower class).

In the wonderful film My Fair Lady, there is a great scene in which Professor Higgins is trying to get Eliza Dolittle to say "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen". In her "street girl" accent, it comes out as "In Artford, Ereford and Ampshire, urricanes ardly hever appen". The reason the "ever" suddenly gets an "h" at the beginning is that when common people are trying to sound posh, they put an "h" sound at the beginning of words that start with a vowel sound, thinking that that makes them sound "upper class".

You can treat yourself to it here.

 

[jutfrank]

The BrE speakers I know who do that aren't doing it out of some attempt to stick to past "correct pronunciation". They're just too lazy to pronounce the "h" so it's easier to stick "an" in front of what is now a vowel sound.

"Lazy"?! (I don't know how to respond to this as I'm not sure you're being serious.)

 

[GoesStation]

They're just too lazy to pronounce the "h" ....

No! They don't pronounce the H because in the language they learned, initial H​s are generally silent.

You will often hear Americans in formal situations say an historic and an historical, both with an aspirated H, because at some point in their education, they learned that these oddities are "correct".

(I wrote "in their education, they learned" rather than "they were taught" because I fondly hope that few teachers would present such silliness to their students and the people who use this forced pronunciation learned it from some outdated book.)

 

[Tdol]

Does the same go for "an hotel"? (I see that a dictionary also gives the pronunciation /oʊˈtel/.)

I only know one person, who is getting on in years, who still says an hotel. Quite a few people use an historical and pronounce the /h/ as they thinkit's good style, which it isn't, and fewer say it without the /h/, but of these, only a small group do it with hotel. I'd take Piscean's advice.