Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 13:28:23 -0500 From: Ronald Butters Subject: Re: Come 'ere Compare also "Kiss 'im" and "Kiss 'er"(but "Kiss HIM" and "Kiss HER")--this is a part of a general trend in English to variably reduce initial /h/in unstressed suyllables and it surely goes back centuries (and was successul in standard English in giving us categorical "it" rather than "hit").