A(n)

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Dr. Goodword
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A(n)

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:28 pm

• a •

Pronunciation: o, ah, æ, ay, e, i, aw, ah, ê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Article, Preposition

Meaning: 1. The letter A (a) is simply the first letter of the alphabet, with the eight pronunciations above when it appears in words. 2. The indefinite article, referring to a single indefinite thing or something of which the listener is unaware, is actually an, pronounced [æn] before vowels, and a, pronounced [ê] before consonants. 3. Per, the distributive preposition expressing a rate, as in a hundred dollars a day or twenty dollars an hour.

Notes: In addition to appearing at the beginning of the Latin alphabet (to which English subscribes) today's Good Word has the greatest number of pronunciations of any other letter in the alphabet—eight: war [wor], far [fahr], fat [fæt], rate [rayt], frigate [friget], pillage [pilij], wall [wawl], and alert [êlêrt]. It isn't the shortest word because, as a word, it is really an, the N dropping off before consonants: an apple but a tart.

In Play: When deciding between a or an, remember that the critical issue is whether the word is pronounced with a consonant or vowel at the beginning. Both ear and ewe are spelled with an initial vowel E, but ewe begins with the consonant [y] when pronounced, so we say an ear but a ewe. Even though hour begins with a consonant, it is silent, so we say, "I'll see you in an hour."

Word History: While the letter A comes from Latin, the English article is a reduction of an earlier version of one, hence the N. The Proto-Indo-European language did not have definite and indefinite articles, so they had to be added to the languages that devolved from it. In English's cousin, German, the word for a(n) is ein, which still also means "one". The definite article, the, is a reduction of that and, again in German, the word for "the" is still the same as the word for "that": der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter).
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LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:08 pm

I knew there were quite a few, but did not know there
were eight pronunciations for the letter 'a'. Informative.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:50 pm

...today's Good Word has the greatest number of pronunciations of any other letter in the alphabet—eight: war [wor], far [fahr], fat [fæt], rate [rayt], frigate [friget], pillage [pilij], wall [wawl], and alert [êlêrt]
I wonder about the pronunciation of the a in bang, where the a in affected by ng. In the South, the a in bang becomes a diphthong [ba-ing], but isn't there a slight difference between the a in fat and the a in bang--even among the non-drawling population? It's certainly more nasal.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:40 pm

I hear the difference between "fat" and "bang". I've
asked a couple other people around here, and they
hear the slight difference too. Maybe it is just us,
however.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Fri Feb 19, 2010 11:06 pm

I hear the difference between "fat" and "bang". I've asked a couple other people around here, and they hear the slight difference too. Maybe it is just us, however.
I think what we're hearing is called a "glide," or single-vowel diphthong." To get from the a to the ng in bang, the vocal apparatus must move so that the back of the tongue is against the roof of the mouth, which is pretty much the position required for the i sound in any word ending in ing.

So that little difference we hear is the result of a change in the position of the tongue as it prepares for the final consonant sound--rather that a true difference in sound of the a.

That's my guess, anyway.
Ars longa, vita brevis

Audiendus
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Postby Audiendus » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:06 pm

isn't there a slight difference between the a in fat and the a in bang--even among the non-drawling population?
Not in (southern) England. We do lengthen the short 'a' slightly in some words, but 'bang' is not one of them.

The 'a' is lengthened in bad, mad, ham, jam, exam, dam, damn, lamb, ram, dram, gram, pram, tram, wham, amble, scramble, man, van, band, bland, brand, hand, land, rand, sand, stand, strand, expand, candy, handy, panda, gander, pander, candle, handle, vandal, scandal, standard, candid.

It is not lengthened in cad, dad, fad, had, lad, pad, tad, am, ban, can (= am/is/are able), ran, tan, clan, flan, scan, and, fanned, scanned, Uganda, meander, random, tandem.

Some words can go either way, or halfway, e.g. sad, cam, Pam, Sam, clam, scam, sham, slam, spam, swam, can (= tin), fan, bran, plan, grand, banned, canned.

There does not seem to be any consistent rule where the 'a' is followed by -d, -m, -n or -nd. But when it is followed by -ng it seems to be always short.

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:24 pm

This is where it would be nice to have an "audio"
connection to the site, so as we could compare
pronunciations. Our Plains pronunciations would
vary significantly to the UK.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:45 pm

You can hear the difference in pronunciation at these URL's:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... itish/bang
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... rican/bang

I just now discovered this resource, which is helpful. You can go to http://www.macmillandictionary.com/about.htm an, toward to bottom of the page, browse American and British words, and then hear them pronounced.

I can't seem to figure out how to switch from British to
American easily, which would be nice, but you can always change "british" to "american" in the URL by typing over the existing word.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:53 pm

I get a message that
the page is no longer here.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:00 pm

Sorry. Try this:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/about.html

I left out part of the address.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:21 pm

And where is the "hear Amer.Brit. pronunciation"
click?
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

Perry Lassiter
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:45 pm

I tend to pronounce the a in frigate, pillage, and alert the same way. I've spent most of my life in N Louisiana and we don't always match midwest and broadcast English. But to my ear, broadcast English also audibly pronounces the a, but moves on, like a schwa.

Why Luke's obsession with sheep pics? I've got a photo somewhere of a sheep in a petting zoo if that would ease his pain.
O----'
l l
Maybe that will help.
pl

Perry Lassiter
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Postby Perry Lassiter » Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:46 pm

Yr posting software is anti-art. The1 2 "l"'s were originally under the front and last -'s for legs
pl

saparris
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Postby saparris » Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:17 pm

And where is the "hear Amer.Brit. pronunciation" click?
On the page I sent, scroll down to British and click. An alphabetical index will appear. Click any letter. The click a from the next list (which is a range of words). The click a word, and you'll see a little "pronunciation" icon under the heading.

Click to hear the word.

If I figure out a way to switch between English and American, I'll post the directions.
Ars longa, vita brevis

LukeJavan8
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Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:00 pm

Why Luke's obsession with sheep pics? I've got a photo somewhere of a sheep in a petting zoo if that would ease his pain.
O----'
l l
Maybe that will help.


Hi there, glad to meet you.
It's not meant to be an obsession, but rather a quote
from the "Little Prince" by Antoine de St.-Exupéry, first
printed in 1943. I use it as a signature because the book
speaks a lot to me, and I used the text in French when
I taught 2nd Year French decades ago.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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