Why do we use 'an' before vowel sounds?

Question

I know when to use 'an' in a sentence, but I'm curious as to why we bother to make the distinction.

Is it that it just sounds more pleasing? Or does it just sound right because we've always used it like this and there's actually a more technical reason behind it?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The Old English indefinite article was identical, as in most languages, to the word for "one" — "án" — and was fully declined for gender and case. Compare New High German "ein", which in numerous southern dialects is reduced to "a" even before vowels.



With the radical reduction of morphology in Middle English — grammatical gender disappeared and declension for case remained only in certain pronouns — the "n" was retained before vowels for ease of pronunciation. To say "a apple" would require a glottal stop between the vowels.



To correct an assertion made by one poster: there was never a word "negg" meaning "egg" (cf. German "Ei") or "nuncle" (from French "oncle") because of misdivision. The much less frequent word "adder", however, did result from misdivision of "a nadder" (cf. German "Natter") to become "an adder."

Answer 2

lingusitically, there are few situations in English that involve a double vowel, where a vowel sound is followed by another vowel sound. This is simply a case where language has adapted itself to the difficulty of saying two vowels in a row.



Even if you think of a rare word where there are two vowel sounds together, like say, cooperation, the speaker tends to insert a consonant sound (usually a w sound in this case) to make the word easier. co(w)operation.



naive also tends to undergo a similar insertion, but of a y sound. nie(y)eave. Noel=no wel (and the french do not say no-wel, so us english speakers get mocked for it when saying no-wel insted of No ell).



Anapple works far easier than ah apple. there are words actually, where the n has shifted over from an, as time passed, to having the n attach itself to the following word that started with a vowel, so we now say the word as starting with n.

Answer 3

In most European languages, the words for "a" and "one" are the same or very similar. In Middle English, the word for was "ain" (meaning both "a" and "one"). With lazy speech, this gradually developed into "an" and the n was dropped before a consonant.



There are some words in the English language which used to start with n but that elided into the article. So "a negg" became "an egg" and "a nuncle" became an uncle. Negg and nuncle are still found in some regional dialects.

Answer 4

There's no fundamental reason why you can't use "a" before a vowel sound, and separate them with a glottal stop: some dialects of UK English do this.



But there's a general set of linguistic processes called "sandhi phenomena" (see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhi ) that tend to alter these sharp sound breaks toward forms easier to say. The use of "an" before vowel sounds is an example.

Answer 5

One theory is that 'an', like most Indo-European langauges, means ''one'' (ena in Greek, unus in Latin, uno in Italian, ein in German, unos in Spanish, etc.), so perhaps 'an' should be the normal form, the 'n' got dropped sometime during the course of history when used in front a noun beginning with a consonant?

Very speculative, of course...

Anyway, this rule in English is perhaps the simplest among all languages of the same family?

I believe G of CP got it the other way round. Words like 'egg' and 'uncle' always begin with a vowel, the 'n' in 'negg' and 'nuncle' come from the article 'n' by assimulation: an egg >> a negg, etc.

Answer 6

There are no technical reasons behind it, language is full of pointless variables, why do we say "were" when referring to a plural and "was" when singular, we only really need "was". If we're talking in 2nd person we say "were" but 3rd or 1st person we say "was". The word "many" for a discrete quantity and "much" for a continuous one. There are loads, and the only reason for learning them is to demonstrate that you're not ignorant of them.

Answer 7

It is a convention. English evolved and continues to do so. There never has been a governing body to set standards.

Answer 8

It is simply one of the basic rules of English.



Such things are virtually impossible to explain in any reasonable way.



It's best to just accept it as a rule.

Answer 9

Try to say a apple. Simple as that.

Answer 10

It's easier I think.