How do you pronounce "Basil"

Erratum: Ocaasionally should be Occasionally.

I still say if you want to base your ideas of correctness on etymology you might as well dig past French back to classical Latin (before the [h]s started being dropped). The word is spelt with an "h" for a reason.

If you want to argue that "herb" should be pronounced /e:(r)b/ because of how it's pronounced in French then what about "haste" and "hostel"? What about "humble", "human" and "humour"?

Of course you might well argue that if "herb" should be pronounced /he:(r)b/ because of how it was pronounced in classical Latin, then "honour", "honest", "hour" and "heir" should also be pronounced with a /h/.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/73/H0157300.html

Of course, I don't adhere to either of these lines of thought. Some say /e:b/, others say /he:b/, others still say /e:rb/ whilst some say /he:rb/. Nobody is wrong: it's just the same word in different dialects.

Actually, I was referring to the way 'herb' was pronounced in English originally. How it was pronounced before being assimilated into English doesn't really matter, especially if you are going back to a language that really has nothing to do with this debate, since it was extinct by the time English took 'herb' from french.

Being from Canada, we tend to stick more to British pronunciation & spelling of most words.

As far as the pronunciation "rules" of English, there are so many exceptions to them that you can hardly call them rules.

Languages change over time. If a word isn't pronounced the same way it was when it first entered the language it's no big worry.

Who would have thought that this HERB known as BASIL would cause such a heated debate ;)

I'm just trying to cause a ruckus, no harm meant. I actually pronounce it herb, not 'erb.

Paul,

Give some examples of where you go with British pronunciation over the American.

No 'arm done.

I might have gone a little far when I said we use British pronunciation of certain words, most are closer to American pronunciation.

However...

We tend to use the u: sound more in words like roof or (but not in "aboot") as opposed to a short u sound.

The o sound in things like dock or pocket is more similar to UK pronunciation, although it's almost a merger of American/UK sounds.

In terms of spelling, Official Canadian English used UK spellings in Neighbour, colour, etc... American / UK spellings are often used interchangeably though.

Officially we also use the British pronunciation of leiutenant as "leftenant" , but I much prefer the American, phonetic pronunciation personally. Usually the Brit. pronunciation is used only by goverment and military officials, and average citizens will say it the US way.

When I was in my early teens, my family and I went to the Vancouver Expo in '86. We were standing in a long line waiting to go inside one of the attractions, when a woman approached and asked, "Is this the end of queue?" We were like, "I beg your pardon?" She repeated her question, and we still didn't understand what she was talking about. She probably thought we were a family of idiots.

Oh...you guys were talking about different pronunciations, not different words used. Duh.

>>The o sound in things like dock or pocket is more similar to UK pronunciation, although it's almost a merger of American/UK sounds.<<

Paul, the Canadian "o" is a lot closer to the American pronunciation. In Toronto, almost nobody who was born here makes the distinction between "caught" and "cot". It's one sound and it can be transcribed as the IPA /a/, which is quite unlike the RP sounds.

Oh, and I pronounce "basil" with the vowel sound found in "cat", but I was not born in Canada.

I find most people from the US pronounce that particular "o" sound somewhat like an 'a' sound like in 'pack'. This seems to vary from subtle (like the Midwest) to strong (the South)

I agree almost nobody in Canada or the US distingishes caught and cot.

Toronto almost has it's own accent.