On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 09:04:14AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote: > Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> writes: > > (This might be a topic without a possible conclusion!) > > Funny, but although I'd say "an HTML file" or "an HTTPS url" or > > similar, I'd say "a history achievement". > Ah, in "a history achievement", you accent the first syllable of > "history", which provokes you to pronounce the H. In "an historic > achievement", the first syllable of "historic" is weak, and so most > Americans (at least) do not pronounce the H, and so we use "an". The only people I can recall ever hearing say "an historic" in en_US were idiot politicians, and they *did* pronounce the initial h. For that matter, I can't recall ever hearing anyone drop an initial h just because the syllable was unstressed. On what do you base this claim of "most"? -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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