For the last few months, newspeople and other commentators have been going on and on about how this was "an historical election." If you heard that, I hope you flinched. I did, repeatedly.
Yeah, we all know that you use "an" in front of "hour," which also begins with an "H" (which, as you'll notice, is also preceded by "an" instead of "a"). BUT, since when do we, red-blooded Americans that we are, drop the "H" in "historical?" So what the bleepity-blip-boop are these seemingly erudite pundits going on about?
It's
"a historical election" by any measure of standard American English. Have the sixties become "an hippified era?" Is Iran now "an hostile nation?" Do Mexican restaurants serve their food on "an hot plate?"
"a historical election" by any measure of standard American English. Have the sixties become "an hippified era?" Is Iran now "an hostile nation?" Do Mexican restaurants serve their food on "an hot plate?" No! NO NO NO!
Sorry, I just channeled Ted Stevens for a moment.
But seriously, what kind of pretentious weeniehead reporter does this? It looks wrong, sounds wrong, plainly IS wrong and yet this error is saturating the airwaves. Doesn't anyone check their work before going on the air? Even the AP Stylebook--theoretically "the journalist's bible"--says it's wrong, "We use the article "a" before consonant sounds." Yeah, last I checked, the "H" in "historical" wasn't silent. That makes it a consonant sound, doesn't it?
So...when legions of journalists don't follow the rules set forth by the organization they have designated as their own authority in how to use language, the media has totally lost all credibility as serious professionals. How sad is that?
The next thing you know, they'll all be saying "nucular," too.
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I'm going to do an rant about pronunciation. I looked at the NPR article and it reminded me of this one time when I was listening to NPR. An lady was talking about art or whatever and she kept on saying ama-tee-your and not ama-cher; I'm talking about the word, amateur. And she would also say, garage, the fog-breather's way: gay-ridge. The fact she was straight-up American bugged me the most. I mean, why would you do that? To make yourself sound sophisticated/classy/cool? I then have one of those Scrubs moments, seeing myself choking the freakin' life out of her while she spills the expresso she was holding and shaking that stupid beret with the peacock feather off, screaming at her "Why?! WHY?!" and the NPR radio host would totally be gaping in confusion and wouldn't do anything. It's like Madonna coming back from England after a year. Just stop, seriously. I remember Mr. Perlman would do the same thing with pronunciation and it drove me nuts and I would have more of those impulses that usually involves grinding my teeth, clenching the corners of whatever, pounding my head against table, supressing a grunt, supressing a yelp, and/or a very exasperated sigh.
Anyways it's 1:19am. The End.
Hahaha.
Daniel said "an rant" in his first sentence.
Ah...the joys of being a Grammar Nazi, eh?
Internet forums have desensitized me so much that only blatant misuses of their/they're/there makes me flinch whenever I pass one.
Is it really that hard to use the correct form? It's not like they're saving typing time by typing "they're" instead of "there", so what the hell is their problem?!?
(End lousy rant)
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