[timcosgrove]

(100% OT of linked article: "a historic", not "an historic", unless you pronounce the word "istoric".)

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/a-historic-event-or-...

[fnord123]

>unless you pronounce the word "istoric"

Which we do (in Britain and the rest of the English speaking world outside North America), so "an historic" it is.

e.g. from BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055vr37

[craigds]

In NZ we definitely pronounce it "historic". But that doesn't stop the news anchors from saying "an historic". It sounds ridiculous

[robotmay]

I'm British and I have never personally pronounced it "istoric", and to my knowledge I have never heard anyone pronounce it like that either. Is it a regional thing? I can only recall it being pronounced like that in US TV shows with comedy fake English accents.

"An hour" on the other hand makes more sense, as that is truly a soft H.

[msla]

Just keep in mind the fact that English is a polycentric language means your customs are no more or less correct than any other.

[nerdponx]

"An historic" is not only still acceptable in the USA, but it also (IMO) sounds better. The leading "H" is not a strong-sounding consonant, and is often dropped in both American and British English.

[stretchwithme]

I will look that up in an history book and get back to you.

[greenshackle2]

They're pronounced differently:

History: /ˈhist(ə)rē/

Historic: /hiˈstôrik/

The 'h' is stressed in 'history', not in 'historic'. Try pronouncing 'historic' with a stress on the first syllable, it sounds wrong. Since it's softer in historic it's more natural (to me anyway) to use 'an'.

(Also, I'm french so I barely pronounce h's to begin with - so in my speech the stressed 'h' in history is kinda soft, and the unstressed h in historic is barely there.)

(edited)

[stretchwithme]

I've never heard the Hs pronounced differently here in the US. Perhaps its too subtle for me.

[jwilk]

Shameless plug: I wrote a spellchecker that finds this kind of errors:

https://github.com/jwilk/anorack

[disconnected]

$ echo "Porting an historic Python2 module into Python3" > test_file

$ ./anorack test_file

$ out:1: an historic -> a historic /hIst'0rIk/

Interesting. What if...

$ ...hacks phonetics.py to use "en-us" voice...

$ ./anorack test_file

$ out:1: an historic -> a historic /hIst'0rIk/

Hum... same result. What about:

$ ...hacks phonetics.py to use "en-wm" voice...

$ ./anorack test_file

$

Ah, finally someone gets it right :)

(just having a bit of fun, this is a cool work!)

Edit: formatting...

[billforsternz]

Sorry for my ignorance, what is en-wm ?

[jwilk]

English as spoken in West Midlands

No need to feel ignorant; it's a nonstandard, eSpeak-specific notation.

[kennydude]

Is there a list of these? Would be fun to know what the Geordie and Scouse ones are

[jwilk]

  $ espeak --voices | grep ' en-'
   2  en-gb          M  english              en            (en-uk 2)(en 2)
   5  en-sc          M  en-scottish          other/en-sc   (en 4)
   5  en-uk-north    M  english-north        other/en-n    (en-uk 3)(en 5)
   5  en-uk-rp       M  english_rp           other/en-rp   (en-uk 4)(en 5)
   5  en-uk-wmids    M  english_wmids        other/en-wm   (en-uk 9)(en 9)
   2  en-us          M  english-us           en-us         (en-r 5)(en 3)
   5  en-wi          M  en-westindies        other/en-wi   (en-uk 4)(en 10)

[stretchwithme]

There's an history of ignoring how other words that start with the exact same sound are handled.

[dec0dedab0de]

Drives me nuts when people don't pronounce H