Dropping the aitch from "human"

[Charles Doyle]

Yet your doctoral dissertation, Jonathan, was "A Historical Dictionary of American Slang."  Go figure!

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 06:28:47 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: Dropping the aitch from "human"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>I didn't think so when my first published article was subtitled "An Historical Glossary." John Algeo of _AS_ seemed not to think so either, since he didn't change it.
>
>  Later we were both mildly criticized by a famous dialectologist.
>
>  But despite the "an," I didn't/ don't usually drop the "h."
>
>  Weird, isn't it ?
>
>  JL
>
>Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:

>
>There's also the pseudo-h-dropping in such constructions as "an historian." Aren't those are high-brow affectations?
>
>--Charlie

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