Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site fortune.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!fortune!crane
From: crane@fortune.UUCP (John Crane)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Question about "an"
Message-ID: <2448@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 16:17:17 EST
Article-I.D.: fortune.2448
Posted: Mon Feb  6 16:17:17 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 08:57:52 EST
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 38

The decision to use "a" or "an" has largely to do the initial sound of
the noun which follows. It's hard to explain but generally if the noun
starts with a vowel or a VOWEL-LIKE sound, we use "an". If it begins
with a consonant or CONSONANT-LIKE sound, we use "a".

For example:

	an animal
	an eskimo
	an item
	an oversight
	an understatement

	a bobcat
	a ghost
	a rabbit

Here are some exceptions:

	an historic occasion
	a habbit of
	a universal problem

Try switching the articles and see how hard they are to pronounce.

The h flows so easily into the i, they almost slur together. We almost
say "anistoric". Maybe we're all lazy, but that's the way we commonly
use it, so it becomes a rule of grammar.

The u in universal has a y sound, which sounds like a consonant. So here
we use plain old "a".

I think we are dealing with the same thing when we talk about certain
Eastern dialects who say things like "The problem with CubaR is...".
THe "r" only gets added to the ends of words which end in vowels when
the following word begins with another vowel. They prefer not to slur
between vowels, so they add the intervening "r".