Hello loyal readers.
I just noticed something funny that I’d like to share with you all.
Traditionally the indefinite article “a” is used before nouns beginning with a consonant, whereas the indefinite article “an” is used before a noun beginning with a vowel. Like any rules there are exceptions – for example you have a university not an university.
It occured to me while writing this morning that you have an “f” not a “f”, or an “x” not a “x”. It would seem the usage rule boils down to the sound at the start of the word… phonetically speaking (or spelling) university would be yoo-nee-ver-city, which is a consonant sound – although y can also operate as a vowel. And the letters “x” (ex) and “f” (eff) actually start with vowel sounds even though they’re consonants. R (arr), L (ell), and S (ess) obey the same rule. This rule should also solve once and for all the aitch v haitch “H” debate. Because you have an “h” not a “h” it must be aitch. So there.
Isn’t language fun.
Comments
i believe “em” also obey this rule “en”. interestingly a lot of letter when spelled out phonetically contaion doubles letters in the. e.g. bee, see, dee, eff, gee, ell, pee, arr, ess, tee, vee….
Phonetically, “university” has a semi-vowel (the [j] glide) at the start so it would be phoneticised as:
[jynƏ’vœsƏti:] using an australian accent that is (the [y] represents the sound used for a german “ü”, and the schwa [Ə] is the neutral “uh” kind of sound that we often lazily say. The semi-vowels are [w] as in “we” [j] as in “young” and [ɥ] which is sort of like “tune” would be if you said it like a toff.
The letters “f” x” “r” “l” all have glottal attacks, which the semi-vowels don’t – try saying “university” with a glottal and you sound like your coughing up a fur ball. so “f” would be phoneticised as [ˌɛf] or “x” as [ˌɛks] “h” with the glottal would be [ˌɛitʃ].
So from that, it seems that words which start with glottal attacks use “an” but words starting with consonants or semi-vowels (or semi-consonant if you like) use “a”
“interestingly a lot of letter when spelled out phonetically contaion doubles letters in the. e.g. bee, see, dee, eff, gee, ell, pee, arr, ess, tee, vee….”
actually, they don’t:
[bi si di ɛf dƷi ɛl pi a ɛs ti vi]
Finally! Some sense about ‘H’!
Did you consider that “h” might be the exception to this rule?
How do you know it’s “an aitch” and not “a haitch”? Maybe that’s wrong ;)
From what I’ve heard from teachers, and SPEECH teachers, it’s “haitch” not “aitch” ;P… I think. I can check that for you.
I’ve always understood the correct (proper) english as [ˌɛitʃ] ( although some wiki people phonetised it as [ˌaItʃ] which is better I think.) They also say that in some dialects it has the breathy [ˌhaItʃ]. But it’s wiki which is as authoritive as Nathan’s blog, so why would we trust it? :P
But really, try saying it the breathy way with a proper english accent – it sounds stupid, which means it must be silent :P
tell you what, I’ll ask my language / phonetics coach…