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Posted By: of troy i quit! - 11/07/03 10:44 PM
as i told moss privately, i am not going to vie for the last word in the urbanility thread.

what ever moss has done in the past should be left in the past... and as for the more recent thread.. Moss has been in my opinion, guilty of wearing a big red button, careful labled, DO NOT PUSH, and several people have been guilty of not been able to resist temptation, and have pushed it!

We can continue to hash thing out there, i suppose, but unlike moss, a self proclaimed omegist, i am a alpha female, and i'm starting post (i don't really care who has the last word!) great thing about starting a post, there can be no discussion about who did it!

meanwhile in the above paragraph.. i puzzled over i am a alpha female,-- normally, a word starting with a vowel would take an, not a-- but a (a really NY swcha a) is uh.. and uh alpha sounds fine.. uh apple doesn't, it needs an but i am uh alpha sounds fine..

any other words that start with vowels, that don't need to take an that you can think of?---or is my 'ear' out it?

Posted By: Faldage Re: i quit! - 11/07/03 11:00 PM
I think your ear is out of it. Historically it was an whether the next word started with a vowel or a consonant or whatever. Over time the n got itself elided into the following consonant. It's still a little up in the air if the consonant is an h, see an historic vs. a history. Otherwise, vowel, an, consonant or semivowel (y,w), a.

Posted By: sjmaxq Re: i quit! - 11/08/03 12:33 AM
> and uh alpha sounds fine.. uh apple doesn't, it needs an but i am uh alpha sounds fine..

Not to antipodean ears, it doesn't. "A Alpha" sounds very awkward.


Posted By: Wordwind Re: i quit! - 11/10/03 12:36 AM
Try:

an albino
an alternate
an alpine walking stick


...and then try 'an alpha'...
an alphabetical listing...
and so on.

That might ease your ear into accepting the sound more readily, of troy. But, then again, maybe not... I'm apparently addicted to tautological statements.

Posted By: gift horse Re: i quit! - 11/10/03 12:49 AM
I've always had trouble saying "an eight", as in "Now write an eight on your paper". Funnily enough, saying "an eighth" isn't as hard. Strange how that 'th' sound seems to help.

Imagining things again,
gift horse

Posted By: dodyskin dropping aitches - 11/10/03 11:12 AM
It seems natural to me to always put an before any word beginning with a vowel. It is also natural to drop the initial h from many words, and add an before them, the biggest culprits being: hotel, hospital, half, hand and horrible. While I do sometimes say, 'a hospital' I would then always aspirate the h, it seems to be a very consistent rule. My partner is downstairs having coffee with a friend and I've noticed that they seem to drop the h from half ( for example) when coupling it with another word that has a silent h, like hour, 'an [h]our an [h]aff', but when I asked him to repeat those words he said, 'an hour and a half', weird huh?
I've just tried to say, 'a alpha, a eight' and it is very unnatural, my mouth stumbles over the words.

Posted By: Faldage Re: i quit! - 11/10/03 11:28 AM
"Now write an eight on your paper"

Try "Now write a nate on your paper"

Posted By: Wordwind Re: i quit! - 11/10/03 01:51 PM
And then write 'innate' on your paper.

Posted By: Jackie Aha - 11/11/03 04:30 AM
e·nate (ĭ-nāt', ē'nāt')
adj.

Growing outward.
also e·nat·ic (ĭ-năt'ĭk) Related on the mother's side.
n.
A relative on one's mother's side.

[Latin ēnātus, past participle of ēnāscī, to issue forth : ē-, ex-, ex- + nāscī, to be born.]

(from Gurunet)


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