On Friday, July 31, 2015 at 12:50:26 PM UTC-4, Sal Paradise wrote:
> On 7/31/2015 10:46 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> > On Friday, July 31, 2015 at 11:45:52 AM UTC-4, Sal Paradise wrote:
> >> On 7/31/2015 4:30 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> >>> On Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 5:16:13 PM UTC-4, Sal Paradise wrote:
> >>>> On 7/30/2015 3:12 PM, Bruce wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>> Isn't cilantro a herb?
> >>>>
> >>>> The proper pronoun is "an" herb...
> >>>>
> >>>> a's and h's doncha know...
> >>>
> >>> Do you say "an horse"?
> >>
> >> No.
> >>
> >>
> >>> Cindy Hamilton
> >>
> >> I say "an Historical event."
> >
> > That sounds hopelessly stilted to my 21st Century ears,
> > even taking into account my use of words like forfend.
> >
> > Cindy Hamilton
> >
>
> Really?
>
> Well, the sounding of it is in with the grammatical resource I listed, so.
>
> Consider...
>
> "an herb"
>
> or
>
> "a herb"
>
> Which is logically most pleasing?
>
> (silent h of course)

If I pronounced the H in herb, I'd say "a herb", just as I say
"a herbivore". I don't pronounce the H in herb, so I say "an herb".

I do pronounce the H in historical, so I say "a historical".

To loop this back to the source, Bruce probably pronounces the
H in herb, so he said "Isn't cilantro a herb?"

Cindy Hamilton