Transcript of “An Oppossum or A Possum or Possibly Some Other Possum”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lydia calling from Portland, Maine.
Portland, Maine. Hello, Lydia. Welcome to the program. What’s up?
I live in the Northeast and, you know, possums are a regular occurrence.
I was outside and I saw a possum in my backyard and I was so excited that I texted my brother.
And when I was texting him, I wrote it out.
I just saw an possum, like a n because of that o at the beginning of the word. But when I looked at it, it didn’t look right. And when I said it out loud, it didn’t sound right. So I tried it the other way. I just thought a possum and it sounded right when I was saying it out loud, but it didn’t look right in the text.
And so I guess I’m just wondering, like, how does that, the and versus a rule apply to that word possum that has that silent O at the beginning of it?
Oh, nice dilemma.
Yeah.
It really, really is.
I decided on, I think in the text I wrote and a possum, and possum, because it looks better.
But I think when I was talking about it later, I was talking to my husband about it, I was saying, referring to it as a possum.
So I think if I were to try again, I would write a possum instead of the an.
But I don’t really know.
So when you’re talking about this animal, you refer to this animal as a possum, correct?
Yeah.
Just naturally, you describe it as a possum.
You don’t say opossum.
Yeah, I don’t say opossum. I don’t pronounce the O.
Right.
Okay. And when you write out the word or when you’re saying the word, are you picturing the word with the O at the beginning?
I guess not when I’m saying it out loud. When I’m saying it out loud, I’m not picturing the O, no.
Yeah, yeah. It’s a really strange situation with this word.
Most Americans use the shorter form of this animal name, P-O-S-S-U-M, possum, when speaking about it.
But in scientific or technical context, though, people tend to use opossum.
And it’s really kind of a mess.
I mean, the term itself comes from an Algonquian word that sounds sort of like opossum and means the white animal or the white dog or something like that.
But the term opossum underwent aphesis, which is A-P-H-E-S-I-S.
It’s a linguistic term that refers to the unstressed vowel or syllable at the beginning of the word being dropped.
And so most Americans just say possum.
But we’re in this really weird situation that you’ve highlighted, which is that mainstream American dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and American Heritage both say that the word opossum, starting with an O, can be pronounced either opossum or just possum as if that O is silent.
And then that leads to the situation that you had where you’re thinking, well, do I use the article A or N in front of this word that starts with O that I pronounce possum?
And so I just want to toss out the idea that that opossum can be pronounced two ways.
Just just forget that some people regard that O is silent, you know?
Yeah, I know there’s an animal in Australia, a possum, that is without the O in front of it.
Correct.
So it creates confusion in that way, too.
Right, right. It’s a different animal.
And your autocorrect didn’t do anything one way or the other in your phone?
Gosh, you know, I didn’t really pay that close attention to the autocorrect.
I’ve kind of put a lot of parameters on my autocorrect.
Yeah, I turned mine off.
It’s useless.
Playing and everything. So maybe I’ve kind of trained it to not even pick up on something like that. But if I write that word again, I’ll take a look. So I think unless you’re dealing with possums in an official capacity as a scientist or a park ranger or something, just call them possums.
Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. All right. Take care now. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Use your cute little grabby possum hands to call or text toll free in Canada or the United States.
And I’m making the little grabby hand motions.
