linguofreak wrote:The practice of using "an" with words beginning with H's that the speaker doesn't drop, e.g, /{n hIstorIk ivEnt/, rather than /@ hIstorIk ivEnt/ or /{n IstorIk ivEnt/.
Completely agree. I remember the first time I ever heard it - a newsreader said "an horrific accident" - I just thought she couldn't talk properly.
And in case anyone's wondering why those who do it do it with 'historical' but not 'history', it only happens before unstressed syllables.
Me too. I think it's because the speaker is trying to sound posh. They're doing it specially to draw your attention to the fact that they don't drop their aitches.
I despise speech sounds. All of them. Filthy phonemes, cluttering up the air, causing earwax, making people sputter and flap their yaps and spread disease and distraction.
Don't get me started on sign languages, either. Abominable! Marginally less environment-polluting and unclean, but still revolting, demeaning, appalling.
In fact, the potential for this message to be debased into spoken or gestural language fills me with self-loathing and shame. I'm going to go wash out my disgusting oral-tracheal tract with a 40% solution of ethanol, and so quell its hateful habits at least temporarily.
kuroda wrote:Honesty? Honesty? OK, I'll give you honesty.
I despise speech sounds. All of them. Filthy phonemes, cluttering up the air, causing earwax, making people sputter and flap their yaps and spread disease and distraction.
Don't get me started on sign languages, either. Abominable! Marginally less environment-polluting and unclean, but still revolting, demeaning, appalling.
In fact, the potential for this message to be debased into spoken or gestural language fills me with self-loathing and shame. I'm going to go wash out my disgusting oral-tracheal tract with a 40% solution of ethanol, and so quell its hateful habits at least temporarily.
