packbat is a social construct

English ...phonology? question: what do y'all do with "a" before a quotation starting with a vowel sound?

60 people · Jan 12, 2023, 04:00
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astra (plushmoding)

@packbat the "n" is mostly to make it easier to not mash two vowel sounds together, like it's primarily a phonetic consideration

but now i'm wondering why we write it out too

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the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@astra @packbat i feel like, outside of /j/ and the /ɹ/ that appears between vowels sometimes in non-rhotic dialects, English usually writes its epenthetic consonants
-F

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astra (plushmoding)

@Felthry @packbat i'm pupy

(translation: gonna look that up later and probably learn a couple things but rn: sleepy)

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the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@astra @packbat oh also the words my and mine used to be a pair like a and an too

there's actually a famous case of a word changing due to this, where people saying "my nuncle" was heard as "mine uncle" and changed the word nuncle into the modern word uncle
-F

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astra (plushmoding)

@Felthry @packbat aaa this is incredible actually. i find it really hard to say "my uncle" and it kinda comes out "my yuncle"

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the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:

@astra @packbat that's what i was talking about with how epenthetic /j/ isn't usually written! (/j/ is the sound often represented by ⟨y⟩ in english writing, like at the start of the word you)
-F

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the Hearth :ms_agender_flag:
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@astra @packbat oh actually epenthetic /w/ isn't usually written either

i guess it's a semivowel thing?
-F

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