The thing that annoys me most about English is the use of "an" before certain "h" words, where the "h" is seemingly dropped purely because it follows "an". It's a silly BBC affectation, I think. If you began a sentence with "Historic", you would probably pronounce the "H" (or sound like an EastEnder), so why is it a silent "h" when preceded by the indefinite article?
Nah. It's an historic relic.
The initial 'h' of those words was, in general, not pronounced in the past, as it is not in the related French words. The 'h' has crept in, but the 'an' has not been completely lost, & with it the older pronunciation clings on in a few cases. 'Honest' contains a rare survivor of the silent 'h' in English.
Note that posh people would have omitted the 'h', & literate proles pronounced it.
But I reckon the language has moved on, & it's time to make 'em proper English words, 'h', 'a', 'n all.