Fw: [ADS-L] Can a have an A, men?

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:16 AM +0000 2/5/09, ronbutters at aol.com wrote:
>Schools try to teach students to WRITE "an" under certain
>circumstances. I don't believe that the pronunciation is generally
>taught. It is too inconsequential. Indeed, it is obvious from this
>thread that people go through many years of their lives and don't
>even notice it until something draws their attention to it (perhaps
>a desire to feel superior to the speaker). I was a professor of
>English at Duke before I even realized that this was a feature of my
>own speech

Yeah, they taught us to use different spellings for "Mary", "merry",
and "marry" too, but did that stop all those iggerunt non-New Yorkers
from neglecting the crucial distinction and merging the three?  Hah!
(And think of all those airplanes that have crashed because of the
"Mary"-dropping.)

LH



>
>By the way, this has all been discussed here before.
>
>------Original Message------
>From: Dan Goodman
>Sender: ADS-L
>To: ADS-L
>ReplyTo: dsgood at iphouse.com
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Can a have an A, men?
>Sent: Feb 4, 2009 6:28 PM
>
>Jocelyn Limpert wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Jocelyn Limpert <jocelyn.limpert at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Can a have an A, men?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  I'm glad the "a/an" problem that our new president has was finally mentioned
>>  on this site. And, yes, it is like nails on a blackboard. I thought everyone
>>  (yes, everyone) learned the distinction early on in grammar school.
>
>Just because everyone is _taught_ it in grammar school doesn't mean
>everyone _learns_ it.  And of those who learn it, many would retain the
>knowledge only as long as it was needed for school.
>
>There are adults who don't understand the distinction between nonfiction
>and fiction, don't understand the laws of probability, etc. -- but who
>were taught these things.
>
>Note:  I would say "grade school" or "elementary school" rather than
>grade school.
>
>--
>Dan Goodman
>"I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
>Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
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