Well, euology and one, pronounced as if spelled with a “y” and a “w”, reinforce the same point that was made about “unicorn”. The transformation of “a” into “an” is all about smoothing over over an awkward audible gap in spoken language that gets carried over into the written form.
When I was younger, that episode had me literally rolling on the floor! I think the part where Chef of the Future knocks down part of the set after he smashes his hand may actually have been accidental (it was broadcast live but simultaneously filmed), which made it even funnier!
Exactly. Otherwise, one is essentially implying that language arises out of text. Unfortunately this way of thinking is pretty common. People think we pronounce words the way we do because the letters “tell” us to. They say that such-and-such letter “makes” such-and-such sound. They say certain letters are “silent.” In fact, NO letters make sounds. Our mouths and tongues and vocal cords are what make sounds. Letters are just ways to represent those sounds.
This mindset is probably caused by the practice of phonics, which, while useful as a temporary bridge toward literacy (for native speakers), leads people to mistakenly believe that letters drive language.
I guess my point was that even though the rule is “use ‘an’ in front of words that start with a vowel sound”, and not “use ‘an’ in front of words that start with AEIOU, unless it’s a U when it makes a Y sound”, the distinction is academic if there weren’t other exceptions. The fact that there are exceptions for E and O as well reinforces the point that the rule is about vowel sounds, and not just letters (of course there are lots of examples of words that start with consonant-letters but vowel-sounds).
I wasn’t able to find examples that started with I or A.
Despite whatever the “rules of English” are, it seems to me the rule stems from avoiding a glottal stop. That’s why it usually feels wrong to a native speaker. Saying “a apple” introduces a glottal stop rather than “an apple”. And so on.
Nothing. They’re common in some varieties of English. Other varieties of English have a distaste for the glottal stop; hence the ‘an’-before-a-vowel-sound rule.
Well, languages tend toward less exertion rather than more. And there are no words in any dialect of English that start with a glottal stop, even if they have that sound in the middle or at the end of words, so it would make it sound like a “wrong” word.
On a side note, I was always told that the english words ‘apple’ and ‘adder’ used to begin with an ‘n’. Over the years the n moved a space so that ‘a napple’ and ’ a nadder’ became ‘an apple’ and ‘an adder’. Apparently their equivalent words in german still start with an ‘n’. (Don’t know if that’s true or not, but it seems plausible enough for me to repeat it without any further investigation.)
Here’s another of those: the Spanish word for orange is “naranja” (both the fruit and the color, apparently).
In English, it started as a “norange”, but the “n” migrated out so “a norange” became “an orange”.
This doesn’t negate what she said, it’s the same exact example. “An herbal” is correct if you pronounce it “an 'erbal.” If you pronounce the H, then it would be “a herbal.”
Right. Nothing inherently bad about a glottal stop, but for English speakers, it feels unnatural and less fluid. This is what gives you that wrong feeling if saying, “I’d like to order an large pizza, please.”
Why have a glottal stop when you don’t need one and it’s jarring to use?
The difference between an herbal remedy and a Herbal remedy, is one was made by a guy named Herb. Of course, that doesn’t rule out Herb made an herbal remedy.
