Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for September 14, 2023

I have to agree with Barney, “an historical” just doesn’t sound right.

This only seems right if you read it like you’re reading “Oliver Twist”. Eh gov’ner?

Clyde is usually the intelligent one. No native English speaker pronounces “a historical” and “ahistorical” the same.

But then it would be “an ahistorical”.

I know he’s correct, but I have a slight problem with his “h is just air”. In the word “historical”, the “h” has a sound, as opposed to the word “honor”, in which the “h” is silent.

Reading the comments can be hysterical.

Don’t get fricative with me, buster

This is an hysterical comic.

In informal use there has been a tendency to make spoken English flow better. That means eliminating difficult word transitions, most often by adding prefixes and suffixes to smooth the path.

“inflammable” is also the opposite of what it sounds like it should mean. Not a valid criterion.

His story is written by the whiners.