Why don't the spanish people say "H" ?

Question

I have noticed that every single time there is a 'H', it is a silent letter, why is this so?

Answer 1

I have noticed that every single time there is a 'H', it is a silent letter, why is this so?

Do you mean like the H in hour, honour, honest, annihilate, piranha, vehicle, silhouette, shepherd...?

The /h/ sound began to disappear in the 1st century A.C., so there are 21 centuries of tradition.

Yes I do Lazurus. - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

This was the first thing my Spanish teacher said to me, (H)enry (H)ates (H)istory. - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

So, why do you not pronounce the H in the words I've given you, then? - lazarus1907, May 8, 2011

Sorry? I wasn't told! All the teacher said is that was how it was! Obviously he didn't want to answer me. - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

The words I gave you are in English, not in Spanish. - lazarus1907, May 8, 2011

Sorry! know they are english but I didn't realize that you don't pronounce those "h"s!!! Because there are 2 ways to say those words, like "honest" I DO pronounce the "H" and shepherd I also say the "h", I'm not sure about the others, good point though! - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

Where I live, annihilate and vehicle have pronounced 'H's, depending on the accent. (mid-southest USA) - Felixlynx, May 8, 2011

I think the Spanish H is sometimes used to separate sylables that could mistakenly cause a diphthong, such as "Chihuahua." Is this true? - 005faa61, May 8, 2011

@Felixlynx: Yes thats right! | @JulianChivi: I'm not sure! - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

The h in vehicle is not silent for the majority of us. - Azabache, May 8, 2011

A tougher question is why the h sound was put back into some of the words borrowed from French, such as hermit. - lorenzo9, May 8, 2011

The Cocknies have done away this H problem. "Nice ouse love, and ow the bloody ell are you? - 005faa61, May 8, 2011

Answer 2

This actually started with the English not pronouncing the 'h' at the beginning of words, the Spanish just decided to go all the way. This was much more logical and avoided the silliness of people saying things like "an historic" in countries where the leading 'h' is still pronounced.

And while we're at it, the whole thing of pronouncing 'b' like 'v' and 'd' like 'th' started with the Greeks. . .they also pronounce 't' like 'd' and 'g' like 'y'.

For your information we do not pronounce "t" like "d".D sound in Greek is formed by the letters n and t together .The majority of those words are foreign in origin. - faliron, May 8, 2011

Like "delta"? - lorenzo9, May 8, 2011

A! the "delta" Δ δ. is pronounced like 'the" "though" is a soft sound - faliron, May 8, 2011

And I forgot to mention kappa is pronounced like 'g'. The rerason I mention it is English speakers are taught that the Greeks pronounce the corresponding letters just like we do and that's where the sounds come from. - lorenzo9, May 8, 2011

And when we learn Spanish, we are taught that it is unique in pronouncing the letters differently. - lorenzo9, May 8, 2011

No ! we pronounce them quite differently than their equivalents in the romance languages. - faliron, May 8, 2011

Answer 3

Why don't you pronounce the K in Knight and Knowledge?

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Sorry, I didn't Know I had forgotten Knife.

You forgot knife, haha, good question, I don't know, I think it is silly actually! - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

Why even put the K there in the first place! - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

Sweet. - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

They come from German words, also spelled Kn... and both letters are pronounced! - pesta, May 8, 2011

Answer 4

In many parts of London (England) the "H" is dropped in all words too.

(h)ouse (h)ave (h)e (h)im (h)er (h)it etc etc.

In some it is never pronounced by any speaker (h)onest (h)our etc.

Spanish is much more logical in that respect.

Answer 5

Because Spanish does not need that sound. Besides, Spanish has two similar sounds, the g of ge- and gi- and the j. Why doesn't English have those sounds? Because English does not need those sounds.

Answer 6

Because it is a different language.

Why don't "english people" pronounce the rollong "erre"? Why don't we all pronounce the clicking "¡" as in ¡Ntombizodidi , a nice Xhosa name?

Different languages, different rules. The universe does not revolve around the English world, I'm sorry to inform you.

Thats ok, thanks. Did you know that the English language is actually spoken backwards compared to other languages? - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

Gekko, People who have never thought about their own language before are now presented with another language. Their questions may sound naive to us "linguistic sophisticates" but really, what question would you have them ask when the entire concept of au - Sabor, May 8, 2011

concept of another language is totally new? - Sabor, May 8, 2011

I should have called my daughter ¡Ntombizodidi. Why didn't you tell me earlier? - lazarus1907, May 8, 2011

@ Sabor: Maybe 20 years ago, even 15 perhaps, that question would not have been so outlandish. But in a world with no communication barriers, where there's constant awareness of every corner of Earth through television and Internet, "not being aware of .. - Gekkosan, May 8, 2011

..other languges, and other cultures" is preposterous. I am not faulting Johanna for that, but I do beleive that we are witnessing too many unforgivable gaps in today's education. - Gekkosan, May 8, 2011

@Johanna: yes; English is in fact very different from many other languages. If these things interest you, and that's a very good thing, you should seach the posts that Lazarus has made in the Forum. - Gekkosan, May 8, 2011

You will find that he has written lots of very interesting things about how languages work. - Gekkosan, May 8, 2011

@Gekkosan: Thanks, I will do that! - Destroyed99, May 8, 2011

Answer 7

Maybe there's a better explanation, but the silent H is simply a rule in Spanish.

In English, why does "dg" sound like "J"?

And how come "read" and "read" can be pronounced differently depending on tense, when they look exactly the same?

The point is, languages just develop in odd ways.