After watching an Eddie Izzard comedy bit about the differences in pronunciation between American and British English, I noticed something.
One of his jokes was that he pronounces the 'h' in 'herb,' "because there is a fucking 'h' in it." I, however, being an American, have always pronounced the 'h' in 'herb,' without giving it much thought.
Is it because I'm from Southern California, and our version of American English is less riddled with regional aberrations in pronunciation? Or is it because I watched too much Monty Python as a small child?
If you are an American, it would be cool if you answered this small poll...
As an American and now an English teacher in Korea who has a knack for teaching and understanding pronunciation, I have to say that when I was younger, I did pronounce the 'h', but now that I'm older, I find myself not saying the 'h' most of the time. When I was young, my reasoning was the same as Izzard's - because there's a Fucking 'h', but now my reasoning is that most people say it like that and personally I think I'm just lazy and it's easier.
EDIT: I think this is the first time I've ever posted on my birthday! Happy Birthday to me! edit2: spellingㅋㅋㅋ gj teacher ㅋㅋㅋ
British people are barely intelligible to me to be honest [Canadian] but yes I say the h in herbs. If you want to look up real differences in how english people speak its more centerd around ae pronunciations than anything else.
If it's a medicinal herb I don't pronounce 'h', if its just a plant (eg that fucking parsley the waiter puts on my otherwise edible dish) I do pronounce the h.
dunno why lol I just thought that's how you do it.
American (Northeast). I pronounce the H only if it's a guy's first name, not if it's the edible plant. I can't recall anyone ever doing otherwise in my presence.
One of his jokes was that he pronounces the 'h' in 'herb,' "because there is a fucking 'h' in it."
I mean, I get the fact that it's a joke, but seriously, does he know what language he's speaking? Silent letters are a dime a dozen in English. If he made this joke in Russian or something, he might have more of a point :/
On August 12 2011 12:26 Iranon wrote: American (Northeast). I pronounce the H only if it's a guy's first name, not if it's the edible plant. I can't recall anyone ever doing otherwise in my presence.
Good point, I had forgot it was also a name. But what do you do forHerb?! We cant know if he was named after a person or a plant!
One of his jokes was that he pronounces the 'h' in 'herb,' "because there is a fucking 'h' in it."
I mean, I get the fact that it's a joke, but seriously, does he know what language he's speaking? Silent letters are a dime a dozen in English. If he made this joke in Russian or something, he might have more of a point :/
Yeah, I think his tone is more of a I-speak-the-queen's-English-not-the-colonies one. It's a significant part of the humorous content of that bit, I think.
That being said, I think the "there's a fucking 'h' in it" viewpoint makes some sense. I'm pretty sure I developed into pronouncing the 'h' in 'herb' simply because of how I learned how to spell the word. No one has ever corrected me on that, and I've never really noticed it until now.
So by his same reasoning...I would like to hear his pronuncation of the following: knife, knee, knight, know, pneumonia, psycho, gnome, gnat, mortgage, debt, hour, honest, mnemonic, ballet
On August 12 2011 12:57 pRo9aMeR wrote: So by his same reasoning...I would like to hear his pronuncation of the following: knife, knee, knight, know, pneumonia, psycho, gnome, gnat, mortgage, debt, hour, honest, mnemonic, ballet
Silent k, p, g, t, b, h, m
Thats what I thought about in about 2 minutes...
EDIT: itsjustatank THX!^^
I had a friend from the Philippines who just would not get over the pronunciation of "leopard" when contrasted with "leotard." He wasn't very happy about it.
I dont pronouce the "h" in herb but if someone is named herb you usually will always pronouce the "h". I have never seen anyone pronounce a name any other way
EPT
