On 7/31/2015 11:06 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> 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".

Bingo, that's it!

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

Oooh, not me.

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

Logical.

An H_erb would sound clunky.