Editing H-dropping (section)

====History====
There is evidence of h-dropping in texts from the 13th century and later. It may originally have arisen through contact with the [[Norman language]], where h-dropping also occurred. [[Pun]]s which rely on the possible omission of the {{IPA|/h/}} sound can be found in works by [[William Shakespeare]] and in other [[Elizabethan era]] dramas. It is suggested that the phenomenon probably spread from the middle to the lower orders of society, first taking hold in urban centers. It started to become [[social stigma|stigmatized]], being seen as a sign of poor education, in the 16th or 17th century.<ref>Milroy, J., "On the Sociolinguistic History of H-dropping in English", in ''Current topics in English historical linguistics'', Odense UP, 1983.</ref><ref>Milroy, L., ''Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English'', Routledge 2002, p. 17.</ref>