JazzO, your question was obviously serious, but, as MaxQ has pointed out, somewhat facetiously, it requires many words or none.

Here's a good place to start:
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/hel/hel.html

I remember a Playboy article from the 1970s sometime dealt specifically with the origins of "a/an", but that was a long time ago.

And before you all leap down my throat about Playboy, let me tell you that in the early days, the articles were written by every good author then writing and the pictures were, um, not very good. Now it seems to be the other way around.

And if any of you has a complete collection of early Playboys I'd really love to hear from you. I'm looking for a short story, I can't remember by whom, called Superboy's School Days or something like that. It was absolutely hilarious. I photocopied it but have since lost it. It was a marvellous spoof, written in Southern dialect.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...