My MS Word did not like most of the discussion and left only a few sentences legible.

For this reason I may be repeating what others have said; if so , my apology.

I keep the ‘h’ in “the historical” and drop it in “an historical.”  I say “a history.”  Why do

I not say “an history.”  The very presence of ‘an’ tells me that the ‘h’ in historical is

silent—but why?  I cannot think of another phrase comparable to “an historical” 

 except ‘an hysterical.” 

Can you?

Norman Scott Catledge, PhD/STD

Professor Emeritus

history & languages