Dropping the aitch from "human"

Wed Dec 20 13:11:57 UTC 2006

What I mean by "one-offs" are individual lexically-conditioned exceptions to a given rule.  The key here is the lexically-conditioned part.  For instance, if I have /h/'s in most words that historically had /h/'s, but didn't have them in humble, honor, honest, herb etc., and consistently didn't have them in those words, then I'd count them as "one-offs".  On the other hand, if /hj/ always became /j/, in all /hj/ wpords, the /h/-dropping is phonologically conditioned (by the presence of the next /j/) and this counts as a rule, not an exception to something.  The Neo-Grammarians wouldn't have problems with the second case; they would with the first.

It gets more complicated than this if you add variability to the second case, so that sometimes one says , say, "human" with the /h/ and sometimes without (then you have a variable /hj/ > /j/ rule), and even more complicated if the /hj/ > /j/ rule has gone completely through in some words, so you always drop the /h/ in, say, "human" but say both /h/-ful and /h/-less forms in "humor", say.  The pure lexicalconditioned situation I suppose would be distinguished from this type of situation only that all words are categorically /h/-ful or /h/-less, and there is no variability "within" a word.

Oh, dear--I hope I haven't made it worse.  Take two: the fact that "humble" has no /h/ in your dialect is a property of that particular word, not say, that the /h/ occurs before an /^/, so that you'd "um" a tune.  For the Englishman or Jamaican, they  "um" a tune , and even "ang their at" as well .  At least variably.  So there, the occurrence or not of an /h/ (theoretically) has nothing to do with the individual word,.

Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
Date: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 4:40 pm
Subject: Re: Dropping the aitch from "human"

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Dropping the aitch from "human"
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>
> We're having a "two-countries-divided-by-the-same-language" moment,
> Paul. What does "one-off" mean?
>
> I once read somewhere that there's supposedly a shibboleth between
> Catholic Northern-Irish and Protestant Northern-Irish: Catholics say
> "haitch"; Protestants say "aitch." Thanks to a friend, I had occasion
> to meet two young, Catholic, Northern-Irish women.
>
> So, I asked about the shibboleth: "Is it true that Protestants say
> 'aitch' and that Catholics say 'haitch'?" Surprisingly to me, they
> said that it was not true. So, I asked, what do Catholics really say,
> then? They answered, we say "hee-etch," or a sound more or less to
> that effect.
>
> So, I was doubly surprised that their grammars didn't automatically
> map their "hee-etch" onto my "haitch," given that they didn't appear
> to be otherwise confused by my manner of speech.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 12/19/06, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: Dropping the aitch from "human"
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------
> >
> > Some of the forms you mention, Wilson, were present in earlier
> > versions of AmE I think, as one-offs.  I say homage as h-less
> myself;> I've seen StdE h-less accounts of humble from the 19c and
> Humphrey> from the 16th-17th.  Of course, there's a shade-in
> between dialects
> > with a larger set of one-offs and those that are said to  drop /h/
> > variably--the difference only lies in the presence or absence of
> non-
> > categorical dropping in a greater set of words.  But it certainly
> > points to the presence and influence of /h/-less varieties as
> part of
> > the input of a larger number of American dialects than is usually
> > assumed.
> >
> > Paul
> > On Dec 19, 2006, at 1:58 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
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> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: Dropping the aitch from "human"
> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> > > ---------
> > >
> > > You've  bitten off a big chunk to chew on, Grant. My wife, from
> > > Wilkes-Barre, PA,  deletes /h/ from /hj-/ clusters, as does my
> mother,> > from Longview in East Texas. But my mother also deletes
> /h-/ before /^
> > > O/, e.g. Hubert Humphrey = [jub at t ^mpfrI], "homage" = [Om at j]. I'm
> > > pretty sure that _all_ Texans pronounce the name of the town of
> > > Humble, Texas, as /^mbl/ and do the same with the adjective,
> "humble."> >
> > > So, my wife, from NE PA, says: 'yuman, 'Yugh, 'yumor, 'yumid, etc.
> > >
> > > My mother (and other Texans?) say: 'yuman, 'Yugh, 'yumor, 'yumid,
> > > etc,. plus, at least, 'Umble, 'umble, 'Umpfrey, 'omage.
> > >
> > > FWIW, my mother and other black East Texans (only?) pronounce
> > > "yeast" as "eas(t)" [is(t)].
> > >
> > > -Wilson
> > >
> > > On 12/18/06, Grant Barrett <gbarrett at worldnewyork.org> wrote:
> > >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >> -----------------------
> > >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> > >> Subject:      Dropping the aitch from "human"
> > >> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> > >> ----------
> > >>
> > >> Can anyone offer insight into or sources covering the regions
> of the
> > >> US where "h" is likely to be dropped at the beginning of
> words in
> > >> which the "h" is typically pronounced in other regions? The
> classic> >> example is the word "human."
> > >>
> > >> I'm not interested in discussions of just "herb," but words like
> > >> human, humor, humid, hunger, hoot, hootenanny, hooter, hook,
> hush,> >> hungry, humble, hundred, hunk, hunker, happy, handle,
> hanky, hanker
> > >> and any others where the "h" is, or seems, likely to
> disappear in
> > >> specific parts of the country.
> > >>
> > >> Journal articles or book recommendations welcomed. I don't have
> > >> access to Labov et al's Atlas, though page-pointers are welcomed.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks, in any case.
> > >>
> > >> Grant Barrett
> > >> http://www.doubletongued.org/
> > >> editor at doubletongued.org
> > >>
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> > >
> > > --
> > > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint to
> > > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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> > > -Sam'l Clemens
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>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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