Can a have an A, men?

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Feb 5, 2009, at 6:41 AM, Michael Covarrubias wrote:

>
> ... the singular verb/ plural direct object is just a poorly
> conceived and
> chosen example.
>
> but i think the quotes around "problem" are telling. as i understand
> the comment, jocelyn is focusing on the possibility that obama's 'a'
> before a vowel comes from a planning error rather than from a
> grammatical feature of his dialect in which 'a' precedes both initial
> V and initial C .
>
> if it is a planning error then it's a "problem" only in the sense that
> it doesn't represent the normal system of speech, and is in fact ...
> an error.

yes, i understood that.  a change of plan in mid-course is still
another way to end up with "a" before a vowel-initial word.  we'd
usually expect a pause in such cases, though.  so we'd need to hear
the actual production.

arnold

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org