I listen to NPR sometimes, and I get a little bit annoyed when I hear "an" used with "historic" rather than "a historic". With a name that starts with "H", I am sensitive to this because it makes it seem like "H" is not a consonant, or that it does not even exist. The linguistic rule is that a/an is used only based on the sound of the word, not the spelling.
Consider that even words that start with vowels use "a" when it sounds like they begin with a consonant-- "a used car". Why can't "a" be used consistently with "H"? Would it sound OK to say "an hotel" or "an hippopotamus"? I really don't think so.
Having lived in Britain, I know that sometimes "h" is not pronounced very strongly, so I think this is a throwback to old days. So, I think "an historic" is a bit pretentious and somewhat confusing for everyone. I say we stand up for the letter "H"!
1 comment:
for the record, I have an "H" name too, and I never say "an historic". Hooray for H!
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