Is the H silent in human?
H is silent in many English words, for various reasons. Not all such words that have come into English from French still have a silent h, however. Over the centuries we have come to pronounce the h in words like horrible, hospital, host, human, and humour.
How is fire pronounced?
The word ‘fi‘, for all intents and purposes, is pronounced ‘f-eye.
How do you say fire in Old English?
From Middle English fier, from Old English fȳr (“fire”), from Proto-West Germanic *fuir, from *fuïr, a regularised form of Proto-Germanic *fōr (“fire”) (compare Saterland Frisian Fjuur, West Frisian fjoer, Dutch vuur, Low German Füer, German Feuer, Danish fyr), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥.
Is the H silent in white?
In my region we don’t say “hwite”. instead the “h” is completely silent. We say, “wite” and the “w” is exactly the same as the “w” sound in “wife”. However, I have heard quite a few people (maybe they were from the Southeastern US) pronounce the “wh” sound as though it were written “hw”.
David Nilsen is the former editor of Fourth & Sycamore. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You can find more of his writing on his website at davidnilsenwriter.com and follow him on Twitter as @NilsenDavid.