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  1. Path: sparky!uunet!das.wang.com!ulowell!news.bbn.com!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!sgiblab!munnari.oz.au!manuel.anu.edu.au!coombs!gsc
  2. From: gsc@coombs.anu.edu.au (Sean Case)
  3. Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
  4. Subject: Re: a/an exceptions
  5. Date: 27 Jan 93 10:29:40 GMT
  6. Organization: Australian National University
  7. Lines: 20
  8. Message-ID: <gsc.728130580@coombs>
  9. References: <30724@castle.ed.ac.uk> <1993Jan25.170300.3332@bmerh85.bnr.ca>     <C1FD2v.35x@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> <8447@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> <RHB.93Jan25203124@world.std.com>
  10. NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.76.2
  11.  
  12. rhb@world.std.com (Robert H Brueckner) writes:
  13.  
  14. >OK, then how do you explain people who use "an" *and* aspirate the
  15. >"h"? This is the only way I've heard "an" used in this context. The
  16. >"h" is never elided, though it is pronounced quickly, gliding from "n"
  17. >to "i" and nearly getting lost.
  18.  
  19. Well, I use "an" before an unstressed "h" and "a" before a stressed one.
  20. Thus
  21.   an historian
  22. but
  23.   a history.
  24.  
  25. Of course, this _is_ an affectation...
  26.  
  27. Sean Case
  28. --
  29. Sean Case               gsc@coombs.anu.edu.au
  30. "[...] if a poststructuralist doesn't get you,
  31.  a deconstructionist will."--Ursula K. LeGuin
  32.