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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!kpno!ut-sally!utastro!bill
From: bill@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Pronounciation
Message-ID: <555@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 3-Sep-83 14:53:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.555
Posted: Sat Sep  3 14:53:31 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Sep-83 04:43:27 EDT
References: arizona.4454
Lines: 22


My Oxford English Dictionary has this to say about the pronunciation
of "herb":

Herb (herb [sorry, I can't write the e and r upside down])...[In ME.
usually *erbe* a. OF *erbe*) ... In OF. and ME. occasionally spelt
with h after Lat.; regularly so since c. 1475, but the h was mute
until the 19th c., and is still so treated by many: See H (the letter)]

So it appears that pronouncing the "h", while considered preferable
by the OED (but not by the American Heritage Dictionary as pointed
out in a previous posting), is one of these newfangled upstart changes 
to the language.  Gag me with a spoon!  I will go on dropping the "h", 
thank you!  (Seriously, it is quite common for the language of the
"colonies" to be more conservative than that of the home country,
keeping older forms that have been replaced in the mother country.
Maybe the original flamer should move to England!)

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (Snail)
	ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill   (uucp)
	utastro!bill@utexas-11   (ARPA)