I've spent some time thinking about this before, and it provides a clue about the writers accent. For example:

"An 'H'", and "a 'H'" are both equally valid following this rule (by my interpretation), depending on how you pronounce the letter 'H'.

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post-it 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

A/an herb, for example.

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mc32 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

/heitsh/ vs /eitsh/. I think it's mostly Irish with the former.

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kelnos 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And Australian, I believe.

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ajxs 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I'm Australian, and I say 'A Hotel', and 'A Herb'. Until very recently, I'd never heard anyone ever say it differently.

	▲	subarctic 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		GP is talking about the name of the letter H like when you're saying the ABCs. How do you pronounce it?

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nephihaha 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"I think it's mostly Irish with the former."

Actually, it's a shibboleth. It used to be said in Ireland that Roman Catholic called it "haitch" and Protestants called it "aitch". "Haitch" is to be found furth of Ireland though.

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nephihaha 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Most English accents don't drop the "h" in herb, although American influence will change that.

But you can hear "an" used in phrases like "an hotel" or "an historic building", where the "h" is usually pronounced.

	▲	isityettime 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Most Americans don't pronounce the "h" in "herb" or "herbal" afaict. We do usually pronounce it in people's names though, like "Herb".

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nemonemo 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Maybe this could be used to track how some spoken language changes over time in a region or across regions.