<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">May be, this is a misunderstanding by some teachers who do pronounce it „istory“ or a joke by some students, in English this word is pronounced with an „h“, and therefore it seems to be impossible to write it without an „h“ but to pronounce it with an „h“ at the beginning of the word, according to the customs of English orthography.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best wishes,</div><div class="">Jens Bakker<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Am 20.08.2022 um 11:27 schrieb Philip Taylor (Hellenic Institute) <<a href="mailto:P.Taylor@Hellenic-Institute.Uk" class="">P.Taylor@Hellenic-Institute.Uk</a>>:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 20/08/2022 10:21, Apostolos
Syropoulos via XeTeX wrote:<br class="">
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Someone claimed that English people (I say
<div class="">more generally English language speakers)</div>
<div class=""> learn at school why you write history and</div>
<div class="">not istory. Since I do not know I'd this holds, I</div>
<div class="">am asking: Is this true? Does someone who</div>
<div class="">has graduated from high-school know the</div>
<div class="">reason why this happens?</div>
</blockquote><p class="">No, the matter was never raised during the period that I was at
school (1952–1963). We were told that the subject was called
"history" and that was that. The <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/87324?rskey=cuajcV&result=1#eid" class="">OED
</a>has this to say —</p><p class=""><span id="etymologySpanBlock1" class=""><strong class="">Etymology: </strong>In
Old English < classical Latin <em class="">historia</em> (in
post-classical Latin also <em class="">istoria</em></span><span id="etymologySpanBlock2" style="" class=""> (7th or 8th cent.)) (see
below);
</span></p><div class=""> </div>
subsequently reborrowed < (i) Anglo-Norman and Old French <em class="">istorie</em>,
<em class="">estoire</em>, <em class="">historie</em>, Anglo-Norman and Old
French, Middle French <em class="">estorie</em>, Anglo-Norman and Middle
French, French <em class="">histoire</em>, Old French, Middle French <em class="">hystoire</em>,
Middle French <em class="">histore</em> account of the events of a
person's life (beginning of the 12th cent.), chronicle, account
of events as relevant to a group of people or people in general
(1155), dramatic or pictorial representation of historical
events (<i class="">c</i>1240), body of knowledge relative to human
evolution, science (<i class="">c</i>1265), narrative of real or
imaginary events, story (<i class="">c</i>1462),
<div class=""> </div>
and its etymon (ii) classical Latin <em class="">historia</em> (in
post-classical Latin also <em class="">istoria</em> (7th or 8th cent.))
investigation, inquiry, research, account, description, written
account of past events, writing of history, historical
narrative, recorded knowledge of past events, story, narrative,
in post-classical Latin also narrative illustration (from 12th
cent. in British sources) < ancient Greek <em class="">ἱστορία</em>
inquiry, knowledge obtained by inquiry, account of such
inquiries, narrative, in Hellenistic Greek also story, account
< <em class="">ἵστορ-</em> , <em class="">ἵστωρ</em> or <em class="">ἴστορ-</em> , <em class="">ἴστωρ</em>
(ancient Greek (Boeotian) <em class="">ϝίστωρ</em> ) (noun) judge,
witness, (adjective) knowing, learned ( < an ablaut variant
(zero-grade) of the stem of <em class="">οἶδα</em> to know (see <a href="https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/229569#eid14146062" class="crossReferencePopup" rel="229569" rev="/view/Entry/229569#eid14146062"><span class="xref"><span class="smallCaps">wit</span> <span class="ps">v.<sup class="">1</sup></span></span></a>)
+ <em class="">-τωρ</em> , suffix forming agent nouns) + <em class="">-ία</em> <a href="https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/231080#eid14065428" class="crossReferencePopup" rel="231080" rev="/view/Entry/231080#eid14065428"><span class="xref"><span class="smallCaps">-y</span> <span class="ps">suffix<sup class="">3</sup></span></span></a>.
<div class=""> </div>
Old French forms in <em class="">e-</em> arise as alterations of earlier
forms in <em class="">i-</em> , which was unusual in this position in
Old French; Middle French forms in <em class="">h-</em> show remodelling
after classical Latin <em class="">historia</em> .
<div class=""> </div>
Compare Old Occitan <em class="">estoria</em> , Catalan <em class="">història</em>
(14th cent.), Spanish <em class="">historia</em> (1220–50; also as †<em class="">estoria</em>
), Portuguese <em class="">história</em> (14th cent.), Italian <em class="">storia</em>
(1690; <i class="">a</i>1374 as †<em class="">istoria</em> ). Compare <a href="https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/190981#eid20448430" class="crossReferencePopup" rel="190981" rev="/view/Entry/190981#eid20448430"><span class="xref"><span class="smallCaps">story</span> <span class="ps">n.</span></span></a>
<div class="etymNote">The Latin word was earlier borrowed into
Old English as <em class="">stær</em> (also <em class="">ster</em> , <em class="">steor</em>
) history, narrative, story (perhaps via Celtic; compare Early
Irish <em class="">stoir</em> , Middle Breton <em class="">ster</em> ); the
length of the stem vowel of the Old English word is uncertain,
and the phonology is difficult to explain (see further A.
Campbell <em class="">Old Eng. Gram.</em> (<span class="">1959</span>) §§507,
516, 545, 565, and (for a summary of views) A. H. Feulner <em class="">Die
griechischen Lehnwörter im Altenglischen</em> (<span class="">2000</span>)
248–51):</div>
<div class="etymNote"><br class="">
</div>
<div class="etymNote">Philip Taylor<br class="">
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