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The preferred Standard American pronunciation is /urb/, but /hurb/, used by a minority, is also correct. In British, only /hurb/ is accepted as standard; dropping the /h/ is considered uneducated. This is one of the many cases in which American usage is the more conservative. In Middle English the word was generally spelled /erbe/, having been borrowed from Old French /erbe/. Ultimately, the French word is from Latin /herba/ = 'grass, herb.' When this fact was realized, the /h/ was restored in both French and English spelling. Beginning in the 19th century, the British also began to pronounce the /h/, but most Americans continue to ignore it.
I pronounce it without the /h/.
I can see how it would HAVE to be pronounced by the British, since dropping H's just isn't done (much to Liza Doolittle's consternation!).
The people who say crick usually also pronounce "roof" with a vowel sound like in "rook", not in "proof", and sometimes even "riff". It is not an error, it is a regionalism. Those same people might also pronounce "root" like in "rook", and even better, they say "rit beer".
Those usages are not necessarily southern (or as you say, hillbilly), and are often heard in the midwest as well. It is equally common in the south to hear people over-pronouncing long vowels -- like "dia-beet-tease", or "ought-toe parts".
That's great, because it turns out Sherbet is the only one that would make people think I'm an idiot, and that's only SOMETIMES, because I usually just say Sherbet now. However, I want to research this a little further. The spelling without the "R" seems to me to be more recent. I recall being corrected as to my pronounciation and told that the second "R" is silent--but it was always there in print.
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