| H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). The American Language. 1921. |
Page 73 |
| | | sometimes not clearly sounded, even by careful Englishmen. Certain English words in h, in which the h is now sounded, betray its former silence by the fact that not a but an is still put before them. It is still good English usage to write an hotel and an historical. 62 |
| The great authority of Webster was sufficient to establish the American pronunciation of schedule. In England the sch is always given the soft sound, but Webster decided for the hard sound, as in scheme. The variance persists to this day. The name of the last letter of the alphabet, which is always zed in English, is usually made zee in the United States. Thornton shows that this Americanism arose in the eighteenth century. |
| Note 62. An English correspondent sends me the following argument for an before hotel: “Personally, I cannot bring myself to write a hotel or a historical or indeed any combination wherein a is followed by an h-word not accented on the first syllable. My sense of euphony (and, I believe, the genius of the English language) requires something between the a and the h-sound in all such cases. Witness the absence of English words showing such a combination. I believe that all English words beginning with a, in which a syllable beginning with h follows, are dissyllables. That is to say, the h-syllable is accented. Witness ahead, ahoy, ahem.” Cf. Text, Type and Style, by George B. Ives; Boston, 1921, p. 269. [back] |
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