[To the kindness of Professor Skeat of Cambridge I am indebted for the
following compend, wherein the scientific grounds upon which a
theoretical rule for the silent H might be constructed, are
perspicuously exposed, while a practical view of the case is also
taken. A list of words with doubtful H’s was submitted to Professor
Skeat, and the comments of this foremost of British etymologists are a
reply to the question: What reasons can be found for the silencing of
the H’s?]
Of course the etymology has much to do with it, so has accent, so has
rapidity of speech, so have individual notions.
(1.) ETYMOLOGY.
There are four principal H’s—English, French, Latin, and Greek.
As a _rule_, pronounce all but the French; and, of these, all but some
words of Latin origin.
Examples. _English_—HILL, HOG, (though this is properly Welsh), HUNT.
The _h_ should _never_ be omitted, being an original aspirate of great
strength.
_French_—herb, hospital, hostler, &c. By rule, the _h_ should be silent;
but the word _herb_, in particular, has become so completely Anglicised
that to hear an _h_ in it is common. So also _habit_, _haughty_,
_hearse_, _human_; _habit_ and _human_ being counted as Latin.
The H was sometimes omitted in the fourteenth century.
“As wrtis [wortis] of _erbis_ soone thei shul falle doun.” Wycliffite
version of Psalm xxxvii. 2, (earlier version).
“Thei schulen falle doun soone as the wortis of _eerbis_.” Wycliffite
version of Psalm xxxvii. 2, (later version).
But French words from Frankish, not Latin sources, take _h_, as
_hamlet_, _halbert_, _harass_, _hatchet_; together with proper names, as
_Henry_, _Hubert_. So also _harness_, a French word, but not of Latin
origin.
_Latin_—The _h_ is commonly sounded, as _horrid_. But _honorary_ and
_honorarium_ follow the French word _honour_, and commonly omit _h_.
_Greek_—The _h_ is important, as in _history_, _hexagon_, and should be
sounded.
(2.) ACCENT.
Accent often drowns the _h_. Thus _history_ takes _h_, but _historical_
is usually _istorical_. To find this out, do not go by what people _say_
they say (which is one thing), but by what you hear them say, which is a
_very different matter_. Compare _hebdomadal_, _hallucination_,
_hereditary_, _hiatus_, _histrionical_, _hippopotamus_, _hexameter_,
_hieroglyphic_, _histology_, _horizon_, _hidalgo_, _homœopathy_,
_horticulturist_; in all these, the _h_ is very weak.
(3.) RAPIDITY.
Very common English words, as _have_, _here_, _has_, _him_, _her_,
_his_, are pronounced _’ave_, _’ere_, in rapid speech. This will be
denied stoutly by many who do so every day of their lives, especially in
particular combinations. Much depends on the position of the word or the
accent.
_Ex._ Did you see ’im go?
_Answer._ I saw _him_, but not _her_.
It is _always_ dropped, at the present day, in the old word _hem_
(Chaucer), meaning _them_.
_Ex._ I saw _’em_ go.
(4.) INDIVIDUAL NOTIONS.
Particular people have particular opinions (frequently wrong ones) as to
how words should be pronounced.
I think if you exercise your _ear_ carefully, you will find it a better
guide than written statements.
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Footnote 1:
ENGLISH IN ENGLAND. By R. Grant White. In the March number of the
_Atlantic Monthly Magazine_, 1880.
Footnote 2:
_The Greek Classic Poets_, 1834.
Footnote 3:
_The Sacred Books of the East_ (1879). The Upanishads, page lv.
Footnote 4:
EARLY ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION, _with especial reference to Shakespeare
and Chaucer_. By Alex. J. Ellis, F.R.S.
Footnote 5:
_Kritishes Lehrgebändes der englischen Sprache._ Leipzig.
Footnote 6:
Merchant of Venice, Act i., Scene 3.
Footnote 7:
Persons who consider themselves experts in the art of aspirating might
do well to procure “HARRY HAWKINS’ H BOOK; _showing how he learned to
aspirate his H’s_,” and put their aspirative faculties to a crucial
test, by reading aloud the story of “The Hairy Ape.” The little book
cannot be too warmly recommended as a practical and amusing method of
learning to aspirate.
Footnote 8:
See Skeat’s ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE. _Oxford
University Press_, 1880.
Footnote 9:
The following gentlemen kindly furnished the writer with an account of
their habitual pronunciation of words in which the silent H is
implicated:—Mr Matthew Arnold; Mr Samuel Brandram; Mr Robert Browning;
Rev. Derwent Coleridge; The Very Rev. the Dean of Chichester; Right
Hon. W. E. Forster; His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon;
Professor Huxley; Mr Henry Irving; Sir Wilfrid Lawson; His Eminence
Cardinal Manning; Sir James Paget; Mr F. E. Sandys (Public Orator of
Cambridge); Right Hon. Lord Selborne; Right Hon. Lord Sherbrooke; Rev.
C. H. Spurgeon; Very Rev. Dean Stanley; Mr Edmond Yates; and a
distinguished member of the present Ministry (1880).
Footnote 10:
A HIGHER ENGLISH GRAMMAR. By Alex. Bain, LL.D., Professor of Logic in
the University of Aberdeen.
Footnote 11:
NOTE (_by Professor Skeat_).—There is a ridiculous notion that _u_,
forsooth, _must_ precede GH. Hence _thogh_, rightly pronounced with
_o_, is actually spelt _though_. _Laghter_, rightly pronounced with
_a_ (as in Italian _a_), is spelt _laughter_. _Through_ is quite
correct: _ou_ as in _soup_. Spellings like _caught_, _slaughter_, are
not only mistakes for _caght_, _slaghter_, but the misspelling has
affected the pronunciation. GH is a comic question altogether.
Footnote 12:
According to _Carpenter’s Physiology_, to pronounce TH, “the point of
the tongue is applied to the back of the incisors, _or to the front of
the palate_.” Such injunctions as these are doubtless strictly
followed out by foreigners learning English, the unavoidable result
naturally being that _thin_ and _then_ become approximately “sin” and
“szen.”
Footnote 13:
This only applies to occasions on which they indulge in _English_
speech. The Anglo-Saxon WH (written _Hw_) had formerly a more palatal
sound, and while passing into ʍ had a tendency to become _f_. In the
Aberdeenshire dialect it has remained _f_; _e.g._, _fan_, _far_ =
when, where. Many such eccentric permutations are amusingly
anaglyptographed in that monument of the “Aberdeenshire Doric,” JOHNNY
GIBB O’ GUSHETNEUK. (Ed’bro’: D. Douglas.)
Footnote 14:
_Grammaire Historique_ (1867). _Par_ Auguste Brachet.
Footnote 15:
“Je n’aime pas les H aspirées: cela fait mal à la poitrine; je suis
pour l’euphonie.”—VOLTAIRE.
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