Hello Tamara
Take "history"; it's almost always preceded by "an" when written.
Should I, then, say "an istorical fact"? Same for "hotel". I know the
"h" is silent *in French*, but, should I say "an otel reservation" in
English?
And, yesterday - in an otherwise great book - I got another one: "an
Hispanic maid". Have I been adding, for all those years an H where it
ad no place, like a mad Cockney who drops and insterts is aitches
indiscriminately? I ave been saying "hispanic" but obviously, I should
have been saying "ispanic"...
I think it depends to some extent on your regional accent as to how
some words are pronounced. Here in south east England where the main
linguistic crime is to swallow consanents at the ends of words (estuary
English), the Hs in hotel, Hispanic or historical are silent, so the
spoken words are "an istorical fact", "an otel reservation" and "an
ispanic maid".
To me the criteria is whether I'd say:
"the hotel" or "thee otel";
"the historical ...." or "thee istostrical ...."
"teh Hispanic ...." or "thee ispanic ...."
In each of these cases I'd pronounce the as thee - to say "the" I'd
have to stress the first syllable instead of the second.
BTW according to my Encyclopedia of The English Language it says that
in early Modern English, an was used as the indefinite article for many
nouns beginning with h if the h- syllable was stressed, such as an
hundred, an help, or an harlot. That practice was apparently started
by John Wycliffe (14th century Bible translator) and still found in
writing late as the 19th century.
English is a constantly developing language.
Brenda
http://paternoster.orpheusweb.co.uk/
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