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/lit/ - Literature

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1703306 No.1703306 [Reply] [Original]

What do think of 'an' before a word starting with 'h'? As in 'an hotel' and so on.

I know it's probably correct to use 'an' but it just isn't how people speak in my experience, it seems very alien.

>> No.1703309

an hero

>> No.1703310

yeah you don't use the word 'an' before Hotel
i think you're gonna be talking about how we say 'an hour'
that's because the H is silent

>> No.1703311

>>1703310
Yeah, people who say 'an' before a hard H are just trying to sound smart. More the fool them.

>> No.1703313
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1703313

Damn it feels good to be an gangster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u84d7nY8pQ

>> No.1703317

>>1703310

Maybe it's outdated now. I was wondering if it was still a rule, but just ignored. What made me think about was I was reading Write it Right by Ambrose Bierce the other day and he mentioned it.

>> No.1703320

Queen's English is 'an'
American is 'a'

Use either

>> No.1703346

Unless you've got a cockney accent, perhaps.
an 'istorian
an 'otel

>> No.1703367

As said >>1703310

an for silent H - an hour ago
a for pronounced H - I am looking for a hotel.

Easy.

The difference comes from histoical British accents, 200 years ago someone from Sussex would be barely able to understand someone from Cumbria, even today some British accents can be very difficult to understand for Brits from other parts of the country. Different spelling, pronunciation even complete changes in language - Cumbrian English speakers could be understood by Icelanders for instance because much of their version of English rooted in the Nordic languages far more than the Southern English speakers who used more French and German words.
As far as I remember (though I could be wrong) use of 'an' roots back to the more ruling class dialects and pronunciations, 'a' back to more rural ones however its obviously a lot more complicated than that.

Melvin Bragg I think wrote some stuff about this in his History of English.

>> No.1703381

it really bugs me every time I read "an historic moment". It pops up everywhere and it should really be a.

>> No.1703392

>Some speakers do not pronounce the ‘h’ at the beginning of hotel and use ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ before it. This now sounds old-fashioned
-- oxford

>> No.1703399

I keenly await the day this ridiculous 'an' before 'h' business is recognized by all for what it is: snobbish bullshit.

>> No.1703419

in British History texts, it's "an historian"; it weirded me out at first, but I guess the "h" is silent because of the accent