This one's our fault
Apparently we used to say 'erb but in the intervening centuries since the colonists sailed away we added the H.

We also created the funny spellings (colour, etc) as well.
(BearWithLittleBrain, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 11:24, 3 replies)

doesn't surprise me
Erb just sounds stupid. like an affectation
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 11:32, closed)

I don't believe this
I think it's just an American affectation. They think herb is a foreign word so drop the h to make it sound more so. Like pronouncing 'homage' as "ommarje" instead of "hommidge". Pronouncing something in a frenchy way does not make you sound smart.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 11:45, closed)

Nukuler aluminum

( Extinct Jesus Dossier "...I think it counteracts Hitler's magic...", Mon 12 Apr 2010, 11:52, closed)

You make the point perfectly

(Smale is stuffed, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 11:58, closed)

Annoyingly
I read recently that the discoverer of aluminium did actually call it "aluminum" but some anal types at the Royal Society (or somewhere similar) insisted that all the elements around that time ended in
"-ium".

So, for once, the damned yanks are spot on.
(greatoldone Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl f'tagn, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 12:01, closed)

But then they started saying it right.
And changed it again in the 1920s. Fucks me off no end when writing for American journals. Especially they way they railroaded "sulfur" as the international chemical spelling. When's the transfer to fosforus?
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Mon 12 Apr 2010, 12:27, closed)

The 'funny spellings' have been with us longer than Modern English has
it's not like we randomly changed it some time last century. The fault for the differences in spelling lies firmly with Noah Webster.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 19:17, closed)