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#32351 06/14/01 08:01 PM
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In a recent reply to a post I found myself using the phrase "that's a whole nother category." I stopped and looked, and realized that while I've been saying this all my life (it seems) I have never before committed it to writing.
Of course, the proper phrase would be "a whole other category." But then I thought, 'if I use that in my spoken language, then why shouldn't I commit it to paper,' and left it alone. Is this Jackie's theory of "Metanalysis" at work? It's much easier to say "whole nother" than "whole other"...but that "n" is not attached to either word here either way, it just appears by proxy in this case! And it isn't a contraction of "another" (i.e. 'nother) here, either. I find it startling that I have accepted this usage in my spoken language all along but never transcribed it to paper before, even in character dialogue. Why did I let it meet the page now? (Perhaps AWAD has coaxed me to be more adventuresome!) And why has it taken me so long to recognize this? (but that's a whole nother story!)
And I was also wondering how many others use this phrase??? And is there a term for it???

If you missed the Metanalysis thread it's on Miscellany.

I also meant to add that the phrase "one or the other" is often spoken as "one or nother." Where does that "n" come from?

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another


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where does the n in nother arise?
well "that is an other story" or "that is a whole bunch of nothing" .. but that is try "that is a whole apple"... (it cries out for an N.--the soft h and next word also starting with a vowel sound.. Nother sounds right-- and i think it also has something to do with the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue.. (do we have a speach therapist here?)-- it's hard for A - Whole- Other to be spoken.. so i think the n really belongs to the A of "a whole nother story"


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An entire nother


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it's hard for A - Whole- Other to be spoken

What do you mean? People say "a-hole" all the time.


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"a whole nother story" = simply a tongue-tangled version of "another whole story"??



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there are a couple of things which could be (probably are)going on here. originally 'another' was two words (hi ot): an other, sometimes found in the literature as a nother (thru metanalysis). [Shakespeare gets some credit for combining the words.] so there is quite an atural split. the other possible way to look at this is as an example of tmesis, the separation of parts of a word by inserting a-whole-nother word, as in abso-freaking-lutely. I guaran-dam-tee it.


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There'sŪ even rules about where the infix goes. You can say, for example abso-freakin-lutely but not ab-freakin-solutely.


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If we also consult maverick and Helen of Troy on these, all questions should be answered. If they aren't, I'll leave 'em to tsuwm and Faldage.


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If we also consult maverick and Helen of Troy on these, all questions should be answered. If they aren't, I'll leave 'em to tsuwm and Faldage.

And that's a whole 'nother thang!

How's my Suthren accent doin' Jackie?



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