I've known for a long time that americans pronounce "herb" with a silent h.. but it's still suprising to me how often that word comes up in the various podcasts I've been listening to, and how suprised I get each and every time.

What's even more suprising is that this seems to carry over a lot to other words as well - I've heard much discussion about "yew-man" beings, comedians producing "yew-mor", and many films seem to contain an "omm-arge" or two to previous films.

The latter is somewhat understandable; homage is descended from old french, so a frenchified pronounciation dosen't seem too offbeat.. it was just something I'd not heard before. Incidentaly, answers.com doesn't pronounce it that way.