The only reason that "an" exists is that there are words that start with a similar sound to "a." If you were to say "I want a apple" at a conversational speed, it would sound like "I want apple." It sounds like you aren't using the article "a." As far as I know, no one denies that this is the reason for the existence of "an." That extra letter N helps us understand that a speaker is using the article "a"
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Now lets move to SLP. It starts with an S. Why does it sound better with an "an"? Well, because S doesn't start with S. S starts with "eh" Two parts: "eh" and "s". S So you could say "I'm a speech therapist," or you could say "I'm an SLP." Personally, I wouldn't say or write "I'm a SLP." Even when I do say it, I tend to put a little pause (glottal stop) between a and SLP. Another example might be university. You wouldn't say an university. It's a university. Because university starts with the y sound, which is a consonant.
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Spanish has similar rules. If you use o (or in English) before a word that starts with o, you change it to u. Agua is feminine, but the water is "el agua" because if you were to say "la agua," it would sound like one word.
In the modern world, language takes oral and written forms. An SLP sounds better, while a SLP may be said to look better. The written form is a reflection of the oral form, and in my opinion, should follow changes in the oral form.
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As far as "An history", this clearly breaks the "Use 'an' only before vowels" rule. I'm not sure how it gets justified, and I don't really care. As far as I'm concerned, it's "a history," and others can do what they want. At the end of the day, the purpose of language is almost always communication, and either form communicates the information.
4 comments:
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/04/using-a-or-an-with-acronyms-and-abbreviations.html
You might be more credible if you used proper grammar in your writing. "Gonna" is not even a word.
You might be more credible if you used proper grammar in your writing. "Gonna" is not even a word.
The term is called cacophony. The "n" is there to avoid cacophonic speech patterns and to make it flow in an euphonic way. Specifically to avoid those glottal stops that may seem forced and unnatural. Although cacophony and euphony are commonly used as literary devices, they can explain this phonological (or phonetic) aspect in many languages. As you mentioned with "o" ("or" in English), the same happens in Spanish with the conjunction "y" ("and" in English), which is a high frequency word. When it precedes a word that begins with "i" it is changed to "e", like its pure form from Latin and how it is still used in modern Italian and Portuguese. E.g., Pedro and Ivan would be "Pedro e Ivan" not "Pedro y Ivan".
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