Name a city without the letter "a" in it

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jul 19 20:01:59 UTC 2014


You guys are no fun any more.

But can you name a city without an o-umlaut in it?  Can you? Can you?

JL


On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Name a city without the letter "a" in it
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wouldn't there be lots of such cities in the backwoods of China?  Or has =
> English (if not Latin) already penetrated too far for that to be =
> possible?  On WB's model, how about, say, Nineveh, or any other ancient =
> city that disappeared before contact with Latin-alphabet users, e.g. =
> Cuzco, Macchu Picchu, etc.?  After all, it just said "Name a city=85"
>
> LH
>
> On Jul 19, 2014, at 3:46 PM, W Brewer wrote:
>
> > TZ:  <<the answer is that there's no city without the letter "A">>
> > WB:  Doh!!! Okay, here's a monkey wrench: No letter <A, a> in Hattusa. =
> (The
> > Hittites used cuneiform.)
> >=20
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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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