'An' hotel?

[Azimov]

If the purpose of using 'an' before a vowel sound is to help speech flow more freely, why do we use 'an' before a sounded 'h'? Surely this defeats the purpose? If I allow myself to be somewhat uncharitable to our southern neighbours, I might be tempted to suggest that it is used to allow the dropping of the 'h' in pronunciation. Is there another explanation?

[omblod]

The rule used to be that "an" was used before a word beginning with "h" where the stress fell on a syllable other than the first one, e.g. "A history..." but "An historical...". However, this doesn't appear to be in common usage anymore.

[bernardo]

"We" don't. Only pretentious pompous people do.

[woofgang]

I thought that it was because the word hotel came from the french where the h is not sounded and originally it was not sounded in english either...then all dropped aitches were considered to be lower class, so the upper class started sounding the h.. a bit its the same as it used to be posh when upper classes dropped the final "g"...huntin', shootin', and fishin' and naff when the lower classes did it.. I never done nuffin' ....go figure...

[goowe]

Im from the North West where Hotel it said 'or-tell' (if you can imagine Fred fom corrie saying it) so technically, geographically depending it can still be an silent 'H'

[pezza.......]

When I asked this question in an english lesson at school (14+ years ago) I was told by my english teacher that 'H' is classed as a 6th vowel in certain contexts. Dont ask me to explain because I am not really that bothered just telling you what I was told. :)

[Mandi_C]

not many people say 'An' hotel, most people say 'A' hotel! =S

[danrevell83]

I have a feeling that, as woofgang touched upon, that it derives from the french. Aren't we supposed to use 'An' before every word starting with an H? An Hotel, an Historic, an Hamburger etc. The french have real trouble pronouncing the letter H and so shouts of 'allo to passing englishmen isn't uncommon. I would have thought that following the Norman invasion of 1066 this was just another habit we picked up from the french. An heirloom is a good example of the 'an' and a silent 'h' working.