[citation needed] This example illustrates how the aspirated h-word héros prevents the liaison, in which the otherwise-silent word-final consonant would be pronounced before the first vowel of the following word.
As early as the 17th century, noted grammarian Claude Favre de Vaugelas described the incorrect pronunciation of aspirated h words as typical of French spoken on the southern side of the Loire.
Further discussion of the phenomenon is found in almost every collection of remarks on language to the present day, with mistakes generally being ascribed to class differences or inattention.
In French dictionaries, words with an initial aspirated h are traditionally prefixed with an asterisk but with no effect on their alphabetical arrangement.
Most have an aspirated h. The exceptions are mostly Latin roots that are most widely used in which the h has lost its voicing through assimilation to common language (in hôte, hospice or hôpital all derived from hospes/hospitis.