phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Thames and Thyme

Posted by James Briggs on October 20, 2002

In Reply to: Thames and Thyme posted by TheFallen on October 20, 2002

: : : : : Why isn't the 'h' pronounced in these words? Just wondering because a Greek friend was prounouncing the 'h' today and it struck me as odd. Are there other words that do this?

: : : phthisic, for one. It's pronounced tiz-ik, which probably makes it the hardest word to sight-read in English.

: : The 'h' in 'Thames' and 'Thyme' is pronounced by most English speakers who don't live in the UK. It's just one of the foibles of English English. How would a non-English person know that Worcestershire Sauce is really Wuster Sauce or that the Munster rugby team was beaten by Glosster last weekend?

: The question with the Thames isn't why the H is silent... it's how it got there in the first place. I believe I'm right in saying that the Romans (who spoke the language that bears no naming, as we'll recall) named the river the "Tamesis". As for thyme and its silent h, maybe this is the reason why you lot in the US fail to pronounce the H in herb, due to an embarrassing misunderstanding ;)

Careful! We may invoke another cross Atlantic reverberation, or reverberations!

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.