Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: USAGE: indefinite "a" before vowel-initial words

From:Mike Ellis <nihilsum@...>
Date:Friday, March 19, 2004, 6:38
Tomas Wiir spac'ais:

>I am well aware of this; you were missing my point. The point is >that (a) the phenomenon exists, and (b) it can probably be reduced >to some actual mechanism of language. I also have noted with many >people who do this that they seem to have little actual dental >closure in their oral tract for coda nasals, and thus the behavion >might be somehow related to the loss of coda nasals with compensatory >nasalization of the preceding vowel. I only brought up the example >online because it reminded me of the phenomenon.
Ah. I thought "bullet or organisational device" might refer specifically to other guesses at its use in that article. Yes, I have heard this phenomenon myself. It's not in use here in Vancouver, but I expect it to be within the next couple of years. Can't stand the sound of it, but what can you do. Hopefully, there'll be a plus side: at least we'll soon hear no more from pretentious folks who use "an" before an h even when they still pronounce the h. "an historic" with a clear h sound. Ugh. M