I have the sneaking suspicion that if you were to trace the word back further you'll find that the word began with a [h]. I'd have to do some rooting around but I have Classical Latin in mind.
Initial [h]s were dropped in later Latin but the <h>s were retained in spelling. Hence you have French words which begin with silent <h>s. Usually these stayed silent as they came into English.
Is this relavant though? We're talking about English not Latin or French. The fact is that some pronounce the English word /he:(r)b/ and others pronounce it /e:(r)b/. Neither is wrong. Whether to write "a herb" or "an herb" depends on your pronunciation. Both are technically correct.
Not everyone from north America says 'erb. Some of us say herb, I guess it depends where you are from, some people also say 'uman for human.
Re: the word "basil"
Guys! Approximately 85 per cent of the English words (out of around 500,000) are pronounced in accordance with certain rules, which unfortunately people are not taught, or don't remember. The other words are called "sight words", and are pronounced differently (how you hear natives). "Sight Words" lead to territorial accents, primarily. Thus, we end up with various pronunciations. These are not the only causes that lead to variety in pronunciations, though. However, remember the following:
What THE OPEN SYLLABLE RULE does? IT MAKES THE VOWEL SAY ITS LONG SOUND. Correct!
You already know that some words may have only ONE VOWEL-SOUND. Others may have MORE THAN ONE VOWEL SOUND, such as:RUBBER
The word “RUBBER” has two syllables: “RUB-BER”.
Look at another word: BESIDE
This word also has two syllables, BE - and – SIDE, “BESIDE”.
Having the word split into two syllables, we see that the first syllable is an OPEN SYLLABLE. So "E", says its LONG SOUND.
The "I" in the second syllable, “SIDE”, also says ITS OWN NAME, or ITS LONG SOUND, because of the silent "E". THE SILENT "E" AT THE END OF A WORD DOES NOT MAKE A SOUND ITSELF. IT USUALLY CHANGES THE SOUND OF THE VOWEL BEFORE IT.
The "open syllable" rule should apply in the case of "basil"!!!!
REMEMBER:
A SYLLABLE IS A WORD, OR PART OF A WORD, WITH ONE VOWEL SOUND.
WHEN A VOWEL HAS A CONSONANT AFTER IT, THAT VOWEL ALWAYS SAYS ITS SHORT SOUND. This is called THE CLOSED SYLLABLE RULE.
THE SOUND OF THE SHORT “A”, “A”, CHANGES JUST A LITTLE BIT, WHEN “A” HAS AN “M” OR AN “N” AFTER IT.
THE RULE OF SILENT “E”, or THE RULE OF MAGIC “E”:
THE SILENT "E" AT THE END OF A WORD DOES NOT MAKE A SOUND ITSELF. IT USUALLY CHANGES THE SOUND OF THE VOWEL BEFORE IT.
A SYLLABLE IS OPEN, WHEN THAT SYLLABLE ENDS IN A VOWEL WITH NO CONSONANT FOLLOWING IT.
And --- NOTE: "Sight Words" are another animal.
Feel free to ask for more.
Regards,
John
I personally say 'erb , but then if it's someones name, i'll say Herb with the H.
I can't think of any French words beggining with H where H is pronounced.
THere is no 'h' sound in french, that would be why.
John,
I guess you might have heard of the saying "Rules are there to be broken."
You don't say "ainiemal", i.e. /einaim.l/, for "animal", do you?
I pronounce "basil" as "bazzle", i.e. /b@z.l/, the rest of the country (Australia) does the same as do the Kiwis, the Brits, the Irish, the South Africans, etc.
There are no hard and fast rules of English spelling and pronunciation.
You're a bunch o' poofters anyway.
So, you're saying that just because the minority(Oz, nz, sa, uk) pronounce it a certain way, it is right?
.., you forgot Ireland and yes, that's what I'm saying, minority or not.
As if Mr. .. were the authority on what's correct and what isn't with respect to English pronunciation.
As I said earlier, I use both. I pronounce the name as "bazzle" and the herb as "bayzel."
I've read about the history of the pronunciation of the word "herb" from different sources in the past and all seem to agree the historical pronunciation of "herb" was indeed h-less (yes, even in England), since it had been borrowed from French, which did not pronounce any "h" (even tho orthographically it has it). Just like the Old French words "heure" and "honor" (modern French "heure" and "honneur") the "h" in Old French "herbe" wasn't pronounced when English adopted the word for its use and English speakers still don't pronounce any "h" today in "hour" or "honor". Apparently, America continued on pronouncing the word "herb" as always without an "h" while sometime in the 19th century the British spelling pronunciation with an "h" began to emerge...this kind of makes sense in that during that century some dialects of British English began dropping "h" in all or most positions, a feature which became highly socially stigmatized (I'm not aware of there having ever been a widespread dialect of American English which dropped [h] on a consistent basis, so it's not socially stigmatized here in America because it's not an issue).
My guess is the emerging literate upwardly mobile middle class in Britain made sure to avoid such stigmatization caused by "h" dropping that many speakers began hypercorrecting by adding "h"s in speech which had never been present except in orthography...and eventually in cases like "herb" the pronunciation with [h] became the standard in the UK (and other Anglosphere countries which looked to London as a model).
So, while the historical (and current American) pronunciation is without [h], fashion has shifted in other Anglosphere countries. As a good descriptivist I wouldn't say it's "wrong" or "right" to pronounce the [h]...it's just a spelling pronunciation that's won out...but I'm happy with my American [3:rb] :) Honestly, on a personal level the pronunciation with [h] sounds artificial and an affectation to my ears, but I guess that is now the norm in places like England.
Here's one of many articles I found on the subject after a quick internet search:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-her1.htm
In reality, the absence of the 'h' sound in 'herb' is proof that North American English preserves a slightly more archaic, and yes, slightly more pure form, of English. This is due to the fact that English has existed in North America for 400 years and for a large portioin of that time, it was fairly isolated.
So, put that in your pipe and smoke.
I agree with you on that, Double Dot Man. However, I don't think that one version is correct and another is not. I as an American don't pronounce the H in "herb," say "truck," "elevator" etc., but it doesn't make my more archaic dialect more correct....just different.
I don't smoke, by the way.
Smoking's not good for you anyway.
I agree with American Nic :"Brits say Basil, Americans say Bayzil. That's how I always thought it was."
British pronunciation is best spelled phonetically as bae:zl: American bei:zl. Ocaasionally, I have heard Americans say bae:zl raeth:bon but bei:zl raeth:bon is much more common.
