...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?
