Pronunciation of "herb."
Hello, Linguaphiles. I'm taking an introduction to sociolinguistics course right now, and there's a question that keeps bothering me, and I can't find any satisfactory answers easily.
Is there a social reason American English favors dropping the "h" in herb, while many other Englishes do not? It seems to be the older English pronunciation, yes, but does it come from that in American English? Any resources you could point me to are welcome, too, since I've found that I don't really know anywhere to start besides Google/the OED. Thank you very much!
Is there a social reason American English favors dropping the "h" in herb, while many other Englishes do not? It seems to be the older English pronunciation, yes, but does it come from that in American English? Any resources you could point me to are welcome, too, since I've found that I don't really know anywhere to start besides Google/the OED. Thank you very much!