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#116596 11/26/03 03:39 AM
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...one giant leap for Mankind.

Tonight in my Dad's hospital room the TV was on, captioned, because he's hard of hearing, and there was a show about the early space program. Sure enough, when the caption writer had to type that famous quote the "a" was left out, as seems to be more the case. This misquote has always been one of my pet peeves, because it was obvious to this 15 year old's ears (in '69) that Neil Armstrong said "One small step for a man..." Neil Armstrong himself has always emphatically asserted that he intended the "a" to be there, and that he doesn't know why it's been omitted more frequently than not. The quote itself makes no sense *without the "a" because it means "One small step for a(n) individual man, one giant leap for Mankind." Omitting the "a" (One small step for man) renders Man and Mankind synonymous thus obfuscating all coherency. But, to be fair, and upon hearing that old audio once agian recently, that pesky "a" short vowel with the schwa, pronounced "uh", loses itself in the context of that phrase. No matter how you say it, slowly, quickly, or even think it quietly to yourself, that short "a" melts away to somewhere. Is there a linguistic term for this phenomenon (tsuwm, or any of our other Word Maestros?). Now, if you pronounce it with the long "a", (ay) it has to be there. Comments?


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It's omitted more often than not because very few (I would have said nobody, but the lovely AnnaS says otherwise) heard it. I would submit that, expecting it, the normal ear would mishear its being there rather than mishear its absence. Playing with it on my tongue, I can hear it go missing through understress, but I can also hear it go missing through awe and self-consciousness. Those who did not hear it at the time were pretty consistent in their commenting on its absence, so either it wasn't spoken or it was lost in transmission noise. Perhaps there is a sound file available somewhere.


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I noticed the same phenomenon last night, sort of, which shows how the language gets a little bent in the speaking of it. It may be regional, but I'll bet it's pretty widespread tongue laziness. This example doesn't change the meaning, but certainly alters the production of sound (like your 'disappearing' "a" sound).

I was visiting my sister last night when my nephew returned from basketball practice at dinnertime. The brief snippet of conversation on point was:

Sis: Did you eat yet? = Didja eat yet? = Djeetyet?
Nephew: No, did you? = No, didjoo? = No, Djoo?


I'm sure some linguists would point out that all of the phonemes which are crucial to the conveyance of meaning are present in these utterances, but certainly enough of them had been dropped or altered so that it caught my ear.

Interestingly, I also note that the final "t" in my sister's question was altered from a aspirated fricative (I hope that's right) to a full glottal stop (ditto).

Thanks for pointing out the Armstrong thing; I'll keep listening for other examples, especially where meaning is altered by delivery. Fascinating.

Ron.


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all of the phonemes which are crucial to the conveyance of meaning ..
This clearly depends on the context in which the utterance is embedded, and the corresponding expectations. In the case you mention (dinnertime, hungry youngster arriving), a single grunt on a mounting note would probably have been sufficient.


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You know, Herr Sieber, for someone for whom English is a second language, you put me to shame. (that's a compliment!)


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Mmm, I think it's his third...at least.


#116602 11/26/03 02:02 PM
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Notice, Jackie, I said "a" second language. We can all have several second languages, as I figure it. OK, y'all fellow polyglots, form groups and discuss!


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Snopes weighs in on the matter:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/onesmall.htm

I couldn't get the sound file link to work.


#116604 11/26/03 05:05 PM
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Not sure if I can be considered polyglot, but for me there's a clear heirarchy:

1. English (I feel fully fluent and literate in it - though friends, during parties, claim otherwise)
2. Hindi (capable of halting conversation, reading, watching movies etc and can write but would rather not!)
3. Marathi (even more halting than Hindi, but can read and write, just about.)
4. Malayalam (illiterate, but can understand slow conversations and throw a few words into the conversation.)
5. Gujarati (can almost read - only because of similarity of script to Devanagari, but knowledge of the language is so small as to be almost non-existent.
6. Punjabi, Bengali, Sindhi, Tamil, French (scattered words only. Can 'read' French, but only because it uses the Roman script)

So my second language is clearly Hindi. My 'mother tongue', in the old sense of the word, is Malayalam.

And does any of this make sense?

cheer

the sunshine warrior


#116605 11/26/03 06:47 PM
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Makes all kinds of sense to me, shanks. "Second language" is an expression that many people I know have the two different definitions for. I have only one second language, Portuguese, so I'm not as, er, engaged in the idea as someone like you who has several what I would call second languages. Now here's another question: "shanks has many ______ languages"? Acquired foreign?


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