Grammatical Error: Culinarian Levequest

NPC involved: Grigge (Old Sharlayan X:12.2, Y:13.4)
Class: Culinarian
Level: 86

One of the two Culinarian leves for level 86 is called "An Historical Flavor". I believe this should be "A Historical Flavor" instead as there is no apparent wordplay implied in the leve description or elsewhere. It seems to also not be a reference to anything but I would be interested to see what the community thinks about it.

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Originally Posted by quidama

NPC involved: Grigge (Old Sharlayan X:12.2, Y:13.4)
Class: Culinarian
Level: 86

One of the two Culinarian leves for level 86 is called "An Historical Flavor". I believe this should be "A Historical Flavor" instead as there is no apparent wordplay implied in the leve description or elsewhere. It seems to also not be a reference to anything but I would be interested to see what the community thinks about it.

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It is not obvious which is correct, since it depends on how you pronounce "historical", which can and does vary between different variants of English.
If the "h" is silent, then "an" is correct, but if the "h" is pronounced than it should be "a"

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

If the "h" is silent, then "an" is correct, but if the "h" is pronounced than it should be "a"

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In linguistics, the /h/ sound is usually called the "glottal fricative", and fricatives are consonants. However, it's actually an approximant, which is somewhere between a fricative and a vowel. Because of this, some dialects of English treat it as a vowel when deciding whether to precede it with "a" or "an", even if you do pronounce it as an /h/. This is particularly noticeable among theatre actors, many of whom have been trained to make the dialectic choice to use "an historic(al)" rather than "a historic(al)", especially when playing a character who is meant to sound important, educated, or old fashioned--and this game often tries to sound like at least one of those things. If you see "an historic(al)" anywhere in the game, it is probably not a mistake.

Along the same lines, you can get "an" heirloom gear piece from Matoya's Relict.

I assume they're consistent about it across everything.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

Along the same lines, you can get "an" heirloom gear piece from Matoya's Relict.

I assume they're consistent about it across everything.

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"An heirloom" is different because the "h" in "heirloom" is silent. One only pronounces it hair-loom if they are not familiar with the English word or if they are purposely trying to be funny. In the case of "heirloom" the initial sound is obviously a vowel, and so of course it takes "an" rather than "a". The issue in question in this thread is whether words that begin with a non-silent /h/ sound should use "a" or "an"; and in some dialects, presumably a subset of dialects that includes the one the localization team is aiming for, a word that begins with a non-silent /h/ sound takes "an".

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Originally Posted by Rongway

In linguistics, the /h/ sound is usually called the "glottal fricative", and fricatives are consonants. However, it's actually an approximant, which is somewhere between a fricative and a vowel. Because of this, some dialects of English treat it as a vowel when deciding whether to precede it with "a" or "an", even if you do pronounce it as an /h/. This is particularly noticeable among theatre actors, many of whom have been trained to make the dialectic choice to use "an historic(al)" rather than "a historic(al)", especially when playing a character who is meant to sound important, educated, or old fashioned--and this game often tries to sound like at least one of those things. If you see "an historic(al)" anywhere in the game, it is probably not a mistake.

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That makes sense. I wasn't aware that there was an argument to be made for preceding a non-silent h with 'an' before but this clears things up a bit. Thank you!

It is an honor to come across so many elite linguists. Not everyone can discern what may be an honest mistake. This is a universal truth.

Words are funny things. Both "an historical" and "a historical" were considered correct up until the start of World War II (1939 or 1941 depending on the country where you live). After that, "a historical" tended to see more use. Both are still considered correct.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

"An heirloom" is different because the "h" in "heirloom" is silent. One only pronounces it hair-loom if they are not familiar with the English word or if they are purposely trying to be funny. In the case of "heirloom" the initial sound is obviously a vowel, and so of course it takes "an" rather than "a". The issue in question in this thread is whether words that begin with a non-silent /h/ sound should use "a" or "an"; and in some dialects, presumably a subset of dialects that includes the one the localization team is aiming for, a word that begins with a non-silent /h/ sound takes "an".

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Now I am genuinely curious, Rongway, as the USA tends to say 'erb rather than the h voiced form the rest of us use.

Would an American say "Rosemary is an herb"? We most certainly say "Rosemary is a herb" here.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Would an American say "Rosemary is an herb"? We most certainly say "Rosemary is a herb" here.

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A typical American would say "an'erb" rather than "a Herb", though I know a few people who do say "a Herb". For what it's worth, they happen to intersect heavily with the people who pronounce wh- words with a hw- ("Hwere are you going?")

Thank you Rongway :) Your answers and reasoned thoughts are always informative.