an historical (pronouncing the h)

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:24 AM -0400 9/15/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>At 9/15/2010 11:05 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>And consider my difficulty when my audiobook readers of the Jane
>>Austen novels kept talking about "an hill", "an house", and "an happy
>>man".  I couldn't very well damage the cassettes without incurring
>>the wrath of our overworked public librarians (one of whom I'm
>>married to).
>
>My research into " an h---" in "Pride and Prejudice" yields,
>serendipitiously, "an hopeless business", as well as "in an hurried"
>and "an husband".  (And also many a "an hour" *and a few "an
>honour".)  So that is what she writes, which of course Larry realizes
>when he thinks of attacking the cassettes.  I assume that he would
>not have the readers on the cassettes change Austen's words.
>
>* Note my automatic (that is, I did not think about it when writing)
>"many *a* 'an hour' ...".  Because I hear this when spoken as having
>a pause between "a" and "an"?
>
>Or does Larry mean that students who listen to the audiobooks go on
>to say "an hill" etc. when they speak and are not quoting Austen?

The former, to be sure.  I immediately tracked down the first one I
encountered on Google Books and/or my home copy, and there it was (as
I posted around two years ago).

>
>My inference has always been that those who say and write "an hill"
>etc. have at some time seen "an historical" or similar, and have
>concluded that an initial H is like an initial vowel and should
>always be proceeded by "an".  Rather than thinking about it, and
>realizing that one H is not like another.
>
Right, and it was certainly easier for writers to just go with "an
hill" and "an universal", using the algorithm that treats all "<h>-"
initials and "<u>-" initials as vowels as in "an honor", "an hour",
"an umbrella".  The fact that this gives weird results in
pronunciation seems not to have bothered Austen, Mill, et al.  But of
course the audiobook versions of their work were pretty hard to come
by.

What I'm really wondering, though, is how Austen, Mill et al. would
have *pronounced* "an hill", "an husband", "an universal".  As they
spelled them, or as we pronounce them?  Or (for the h- cases) with
the <h> elided, cockney-style--"an 'appy man"?  Or variably?

LH

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