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

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