H-dropping

More local than us, apparently; I find out that Janet complains that ‘John’s from Herefordshire but he’s not real Herefordshire.’ […] But if I’m honest, I know what she means: I don’t have an h-dropping local accent and speak instead in a detached RP rumble.

In England, the most up-to-date research suggests that some 13th-century dialects were h-dropping, but by the time elocution experts came along in the 18th century, they were pointing out what a crime it is.

Apart from the two ‘default’ terms of guest-house and inn, they are all host- or harbour-related: hostry, host, hostel, hostelry, hostelar, host-house; harbergery, harbergage. (The initial h- was often omitted in the spelling, indicating the h'''-dropping character of contemporary pronunciation.)