User talk:Jenser

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 * Thanks Darwinek! But I am a bit confused. Is this just a normal welcome post, or did I do something wrong? Jenser 14:05, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Normal welcome post and also a "thankyou" for your work yet. :) - Darwinek 15:19, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks! That makes me happy. :) Jenser 18:04, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi Jenser,

I am writing this in reply to your contribution to Mark Knopfler's wikipedia page. Feel free to put this down to my eccentricity, but I must respond to your thoughts on whether it is correct to write "an homage". There is no silent h in "homage", nor is there one in "historic". For some reason the aforementioned error has become common among those who wish to show off.

In proper English we do not write as we speak. If, for example, you are from Texas and drop your "h" it still does not mean that you allow for that in your writing. That is why, as a Scotsman, I do not type "awright" when I mean to say "alright". If you insist on dropping the h, use an apostrophe to indicate as much.

Apologies if my coming on here to write about this seems a bit mental, but I am fed up of people writing "an historic" in an attempt to look somehow in the know or clever.


 * Hi 82.40.19.192! Homage - well, I did some research prior to my edit and found that the pronunciation with a silent "h" is considered correct, at least in some places. As the word comes from french "homme->hommage" and the "h" is always silent in french, this is only logical for me. Merriam-Webster agrees  and so I would say that those pronuncing the "h" are maybe refusing to use the "old-fashioned" pronunciation. Obviously there is no definitive right or wrong here, but I hope that for the scope of the Mark Knopfler article we can agree on the use of "homage" as an uncountable and simply drop the a/an. Jenser 11:27, 17 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Language has developed and currently, from what I can tell, pronouncing the "h" is more common. Mind you, my research has not been as extensive as your own, and I am basing this on www.dictionary.com emphasising the pronounciation of the "h".  It's a bit of a silly discussion to have, but the whole a/an debate is something of a pet peeve of mine.  Everyone and their dog is dropping the "h" to adhere to a nonsense rule.  I guess you could say, at the ripe old age of 24, I'm a bit eccentric and have decided to take a stand against this grammatical boo boo :-)

I take your point, however. An argument can be made for "an homage" if indeed you are comfortable with the older pronunciation. 82.40.19.192 23:34, 17 June 2007 (UTC)