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?