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Michel Boucher[_2_]

Melba's Jammin' > wrote in news:barbschaller-
:

> Do you say iss-tory?

Coming from French, a silent initial H is de rigueur. Like Hydro
(pronounced ee-dro) even though it's Greek.

> How about the author of Moby Dick? Erman Melville?

Enery the Eighth? Ubert Umphrey, "hurts hoit!" (no wait, that's something
else)

> There's some law about why erbs is correct but I can't remember what it
> is or what court it was adjudicated in.

But your would say the H in Herb as a noun. However to get back to herb
pronounced "erb", it's a North American phenomenon, connected tro the fact
that in French, it's pronounced "airb".

Similarly, lieutenant in British dominated countries is pronounced
"leftenant" whereas in the US it's much like the French Lieutenant (Lyeh-
tuhnahn).

The word tells you its meaning: lieu-tenant is he who holds the position
while the lord goes off to war; left-tenant is also he who holds the
position, etc etc. The parts "lieu" and "left" seem to imply a different
meaning but if you go back far enough in roots, they are seen to have a
similar etymology (Latin locum tenens). As an aside, it appears that the
current US pronunciation gained ground during the 19th century, and in its
broad military meaning refers to a rank immediately below a superior, say
for example a colonel is a lieutenant to a general, a major to a colonel,
and so on. That the lowest officer grade is actually called a lieutenant
would indicate they had no real name for it :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant#Etymology