a whole nother

[Tom Zurinskas]

I think "a whole nother" comes down to syllablization.  The word "another"
tends in phonetic syllablization to be split a-nother because the typical
syllable is consonant-vowel.  Thus in speech the split "a-nother" is favored
over "an-other."  It can be thought of as two words "a nother."  And for
emphasis "a whole nother" even though everyone knows there's no such thing
as "nother".  I've heard this term and used it myself in South Jersey.

Tom Z

See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.





>From: Michael Adams <madams1448 at AOL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: a whole nother
>Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 15:34:35 -0400
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Michael Adams <madams1448 at AOL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: a whole nother
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Sometimes it's jocular, certainly. But not two days ago I heard an NPR
>commentator use "a whole nother thing" without cracking a smile or raising
>an eyebrow -- you could hear that he wasn't smiling, though I guess I can't
>hear an eyebrow as well as a smile.
>
>~ Michael
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Sent: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 1:03 PM
>Subject: Re: a whole nother
>
>
> >And here's a whole nother reason it can't (read "shouldn't") be infixing
> >in English: it would be the only case I can think of in which a proposed
> >infixing would end up generating an interposing -- another infixed as a
> >whole nother ends up becoming a phrase, "a whole nother," in which whole
> >is interposed. I would never say that it couldn't happen (always unwise
>to
> >say), but given our current expectations it shouldn't happen -- should
>it?
> >Can anyone think of another example?
> >
> >~ Michael
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~
>My impression is that most of the times I hear it, it is delivered with a
>certain jocularity or wryness of tone. Wouldn't that have some implications
>affecting its evolutionary diagnosis?
>AM
>
>~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>
>
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