just a random thing I don't get.

hmm..i've never pronounced human like that. i do say "erbs" though,only because people where i live feel they have to correct you if you don't.i used to pronounce the h. i guess we make up for dropping letters by adding them in words where they aren't necessary. like "pneumonia" LOL

Here in Wales (UK), there is often a dropping of "H" from various words. But we do so say Herbs and not erbs. The h often gets dropped from words like hand (and), house (ouse)- When I lived in the north of England, often two words would get put together, which I thought was quaint... like th'ouse (the house) th'oven (the oven), and sometime missing the "the" altogether - like "I can see dog coming now..." in place of "I can see the dog coming now". I once saw a documentary where they were claiming the English language was changing and evolving out of recognition.. Which isn't surprising because if we listen to old English now, we would hardly understand it.. :-)

I've never heard an American say uman, instead of human. Of course the herb thing is pretty common. I guess it is just like any other country, they share the same words, but not the same pronunciation. I do hope though, that the uman thing does not catch on. : )

*I* say "human." I don't know anyone that doesn't say "human." I also say "palm" with the "l" not "paaam" like some people. Now, we do drop the "h"s off herb - but I think its partly to tell the difference between the plants & the guys. But that comes from softening those "h"s right out of existance rather than ignoring them. "'e'd go 'ome if 'e could" isn't good English, but you hear it. Its like putting an "an" artical in front of some "h" words rather than an "a" artical. As in "Its an honor to meet you." You don't stress the "h". You do, however, say "She's got a horse" rather than "an horse" if you see what I mean.

tsk tsk tsk slammin the yanks again, you Brits hav nothing better to do. :b That's okay, we slam us too. We have so many dialects in the States that sometimes we can't understand each other. I lived awhile in North Carolina and I'm here to tell you -no exaggeration, some of the dialects there are so hard they are treated like a foriegn language. Two dialects. And what it is is that the people have inhabited a region hard to get to and became insulted. Talkers and singers from Asheville have such a strong scottish influence in their speech that recordings have been made to preserve it at the Library of Congress. Its not English. they settled there in the late 1600's and only since computers have they begun to mingle and speak with an american pronunciation and vocabulary. There's another group on the other side of the state where they teach the language they are speaking as it is so strange to us, still call it English..There's no one way we talk, but we are agreed on one thing. Damned if we're gonna call our erbs herbs. Ha!

I agree with zukepr...I've always pronounced human with a definite "h" sounds and like her though do pronouce herb like erb....oh the flip side...don't most people from Britain pronounce hello, like "allo"??? Just curious...LOL