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It does have something to do with stress. Saying "a history of the western world" works because the space between "a" and "h" sets the word "history" apart as another word. It's easy to say because the stress is on "his-".
Saying "an historian taught me about the Black Plague" it creates a flow to an unstressed syllable, much like liaison in French, or sandhi in Sanskrit, where there is fusion of sounds across word boundaries. In other words, to say "a historian" requires a singultus between the two words which is awkward and causes, at least to my throat, an unnatural transition from one letter to the next sound. Using liaison in this case, eliminates that hiccup.
You don't say "an horse" or "an house" or "an history" because the stress is on the first - and in this case, only - syllable, and a listener wouldn't understand what the second word is, whereas in the above case, there is no doubt about the meaning. OK, tell me all the words that dispute my assertion, like "a hysterical laugh", which could just as well be pronounced "an hysterical laugh" (the general reaction to this post but I don't care).
Here's my main thing. I think this is the first time I have ever heard both Grant and Martha say that a particular usage is definitively and eternally wrong, requiring proof beyond a shadow of a doubt to dispute. And this long-term rule is still enforceable. I'm not convinced. 🙂
PS. The spell-check on this forum flags singultus.
There is no question in my mind. In written form, it's a giorian - but in oral English (which os almost another language), people pronounce that as "anise tory run", all tun together as if it was one word.
As far as the spell-checker flagging singulus, they limit spell cjeckers to about 40-45,000 words, on purpose. If an average person types that word, it's mosr likely a typo, or he means another word. There are already a lot of typos that hget through because they accidentally form another word. Thee, for insance. O think thee is an uncommon word that is more likely "the" with a stutter on the last letter, but spell checkers unually let it go by without comment (as this one does). And at one point, I set a filter on my POP3 server to toss mail using "loose" in the spam. I have images in my head of supersized fat ladies removing yjeir girdles and loosing bushels of fat upon their victims. (And I *like* fat ladies.)
"If a compiler can tell us where the error is, why can't it just *fix* the error? - Donald Knuth
For me it would make sense to say an only if you omit the aspiration and the initial h is silent. There are several examples in English where an initial h is silent (an honor, an heir, an hour, an honest man, an herb (USA)). The standard words above with silent initial h always take an in both the written and spoken form.
There are even more examples where some dialect omits the initial h in other words. Whenever it happens that omitting the initial h-sound results in an initial vowel sound that would normally take an, it makes some sense to use an, at least in the spoken form.
Still, I hear loads of people say an and then emphasize the aspiration of the h when saying historic. They usually say they learned it should be that way. Some will offer some rationale for the practice.
All linguistic, phonological, and articulatory explanations I have heard for this practice hold no water, be it stress or something else. There have always been numerous examples of the same pattern in other words for which the an is never a thought and is never heard.
a history vs. a hickory or a harmony
Even when the stress shifts to the second syllable as in related forms:
a historic event vs. a hypnotic event (not *an hypnotic event) or a harmonic sound (not *an harmonic sound) or a harmonious sound (not *an harmonious sound).
Not even when the stress is on the third or fourth syllable do you find other h-words in English that lose their aspiration so that the word takes an. All of these explanations that are brought forth simply don't match the facts of the language.
A hippopotamus (not *an hippopotamus)
A hypoglycemic attack (not *an hypoglycemic attack)
Here's what Oxford dictionary has to say:
Oxford on historic
I stand with Grant and Martha on this one. It is a constructed controversy to use an when the h is pronounced. If you do not pronounce the h, at least you are being consistent. Still, you might consider coming forth from the 19th century.
I'm with you, Glenn. Nice try, stevenz, A for effort; but I would not say "an historian" if the historian in question were an homunculus hooting on an harmonica with an horticulturist. To a U.S. ear, anyway, "an historian" inevitable sounds affected (which, I fear, may be the intention of half the people who use it in this country).
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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