Emphasizing the Article Before a Noun by Nasalizing It

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jane. I’m calling from Denver, Colorado.

And my question is about a slang that I’ve been using for many years now. I’ve heard it on the Internet and I’ve been asking around and recently I can’t find anybody else who knows what I’m talking about.

Basically, the way it works is when you’re trying to describe a specific thing that doesn’t matter, you would say an thing. Like, you know, you would describe it as a thing, but with an N in front of a consonant instead of a vowel, just to, I don’t know, like to disrespect the grammar, I guess, in order to show that the thing didn’t matter.

Like, oh, I was out of town when my car broke down, so I just went to Ann Mechanic and, you know, went to my adorable guy when I got back. Something like that.

And I’ve been messing around. I can’t find anybody else who knows what it is. And I don’t even know what to call this type of slang. Is there any precedent for it? Is it really just in my own head? I have no idea.

It’s interesting. Ordinarily, a word like recipe or mechanic would have A in front of it, the article A, because there’s a consonant sound. So that’s how English works. It’s not that it’s a consonant, it’s that it’s a consonant sound.

If those words began with a vowel sound, then we use the article A-N, like an apple or an orange. And so what you’re hearing sounds like people are violating that rule of grammar and saying an mechanic or an recipe in order to be specific about not being specific.

In other words, to say, I just went to any old recipe for this particular pie or I just went to any old mechanic rather than my preferred mechanic. I chose any old recipe rather than my favorite recipe from my grandma.

Yes, exactly. Something like that. Something like that.

Yeah. I guess it’s not a thing that hasn’t yet been chosen. Sometimes it’s future, but most of the time when we say it, it’s like a thing that has already been decided upon, but just to signify that which one didn’t matter.

In the original Wayne’s World movie, there’s a scene where he’s approached by his ex-girlfriend, Stacy, and she is just kind of not getting the fact that they’ve broken up. And she gives him a gift, an unexpected gift, and it’s a gun rack.

And Wayne is kind of befuddled. He’s not expecting a gift, and he’s not expecting a gun rack. And he’s like, a gun rack. A gun rack. I don’t even own a gun.

And so what he does is he nasalizes the a before a gun. Instead of saying a gun and kind of really stressing that a, nasalizes it and stretches it out to emphasize it. And my proposition to you, Jane, is that that’s what’s happening here.

That instead of saying A-N mechanic or A-N recipe and using the wrong article, what they’re doing is stressing it and emphasizing it by nasalizing it and drawing it out, elongating the word. And that’s what you’re hearing, just like Wayne did it or Mike Myers in this movie. And then that is a function of a certain form of informal speech.

Fascinating. Oh, that’s cool. It’s interesting that there’s a precedent for it.

Yeah, yeah. So it’s a kind of contrastive stress.

Yeah, I think most of the time when I’ve heard it, the people I’m speaking to, I know their accent pretty well. And so I would hear the difference between A and AN, or like, you know, or like, I don’t know, nasalize or an or a.

I’m not even sure how to recreate what you just did. So if you were talking about an orange and you were talking about it in the same way, would you say a orange?

You know, I’ve been thinking back and I don’t think I’ve ever used it before a vowel. It’s always been before a consonant.

Very interesting. It hasn’t come up before a vowel. More data is needed, Jane. More data is needed.

I just need to hopefully, maybe your callers know what the hell I’m talking about. Jane, thank you so much. This is very intriguing. I am interested to find out more.

And we have a whole host of intelligent, earful listeners who are surely coming to us with more information. Very cool.

Take care, Sal. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Bye-bye.

If you know something about this use of the A-N article in front of nouns beginning with a consonant sound, which is a violation of English grammar, then let us know, 877-929-9673, or email words@waywordradio.org.