Because different dialects pronounce herb differently, sometimes the ‘h’ is pronounced, sometimes not.
I know you specified American English, but even within American English, you can find areas that differ on this, and I’m sure there are other words where this kind of thing crops up.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
This does get confusing with say…
“A/An herb.”
Because different dialects pronounce herb differently, sometimes the ‘h’ is pronounced, sometimes not.
I know you specified American English, but even within American English, you can find areas that differ on this, and I’m sure there are other words where this kind of thing crops up.
dankm@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
Sometimes you get article transfer as well. The English word “apron” comes from the obsolete “napron”, in turn from Old French “napperon”.
People heard “a napron”, which became “an apron”, which eventually led to the main word being “apron”.
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
Hah, I’d never heard that before!
That is amusing =p
Wait, does muse / amuse have a similar etymology?
A musing, musing, here I go amusing again…
Something like that?