Important Philosophical Questions + POLLS

General Chat
490

Sounds nice. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
491

Well, the London Open (usually held in late December) has cancelled


1 Like
492

That’s not so philosophical and not requiring any poll: of course we want that sort of thing!

Only concern is the cheating management as soon as you go big


493

Let’s not go there, please?.. :crying_cat_face: I was thinking of something fun siteside, an informal get together for the whole player base, but if we go into the “how will we control everyone” the fun goes out of the window.

1 Like
494

So sure then better no prize.

495

I don’t understand the negativity, honestly.

I just said it would be fun to have a big live event to play.
Why does it always have to be about cheaters and prizes?.. :unamused:

2 Likes
496

“If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. [
]”

– James Madison

Not govt. we’re talking about here, but I think the principle applies.

497

Well, we obviously need a government to regulate Parliament assemblies, but we usually let birthday parties self-regulate.
(I won’t take a side in which needs angels more :stuck_out_tongue:).

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498

Ok my bad, i’m bit more negative these days (Due to some lack of nicotine for a part), please accept my apologies.

Let’s put cheating and prizes aside and please bring us a wonderful winter live tournament.

1 Like
499

I’m wondering if years ago (that’s more for the veterans around) you did play go on the infamous (and now defunct) Yahoo games

  • Often
  • Sometimes
  • Never

0 voters

Anonymous poll of course we are talking about the ancient kingdom of sandbagging (and cheating).

2 Likes
500

Former heavy smoker here, I feel you.

2 Likes
501

Which of these nouns should take the article an in writing?

  • unicorn, ie. u-nouns with the starting sound /j/
  • hat, ie. h-nouns
  • both
  • neither
  • all answers are acceptable as long as the author applies the rule consistently
  • it doesn’t matter; even inconsistent application is fine

0 voters

502

“All answers are acceptable as long as the author applies the rule consistently”

I’m curious about your vote. Do you mean that the english language allows an+ h/ an+ u or that a new rule needs to be applied consistently in order to be valid?
Because I’ve never heard “an hat” or “an unicorn” and it sounds really weird to me.

1 Like
503

it sounds really weird to me

That’s what I thought originally, but many people accept both as valid and even prescriptive forms.

I found this out the hard way a couple of years ago when I changed phrases like an history → a history on Wikipedia and eventually got charged with vandalism. It’s thought that the root of the an + h written form derives from h-dropping dialects.

Or perhaps this rule only applies to history for some reason? My memory is fuzzy.

2 Likes
504

Hmm, I found a few examples in Wikipedia titles, but they’re quite archaic (of course, we’re not discussing such usual h-dropping words as honour or hour).

An Humorous Day’s Mirth, 1599
An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, 1681
An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, 1690
An Hallucinated Alchemist, 1897

And for the U-rule:

An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1721
An Universal History of Arts and Sciences, 1741-45
An Universal history, from the earliest account of time, 1747-68

We might suspect that universal began with /u:/ at the time rather than /ju:/, but these are still interesting.

2 Likes
505

Now searching article text.

The articles 1996 OFC Nations Cup Final, 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification, Terence Robbins, and Chibundu Amah feature the phrase an hat-trick in either original or quoted form.

The articles Aliyah, Bakkah, Harvard Massachusetts, Psalm 31, Isaiah 56, 1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic, Singapore Zoo, Temple Lot, Maughan Library, University Hall (Brown University), Samual Hoare Jr, American historic carpentry, Francis Maseres, and another 500 ARTICLES employ the phrase an house.

The articles Vine (demon), Iago, United Nations Mission in Liberia, BabalĂș-AyĂ©, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, The Zack Files, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Elaine Nicpon Marieb, Uto, Mode (user interface), K. Balagopal, Gaby Lasky, Tatiana Bilbao, Nana Akosua Konadu, Larung Gar, Pyrrhus and Demetrius, Plant memory, Bert Poolman, List of Hell Teacher NĆ«bē episodes, and George Sai Wah Tsao use the phrase an human.

etc. etc.

Also, the an rule doesn’t just apply to u- words. 500 Wikipedia articles use the form an eunuch and a further five feature an eusocial.

There are even 15 articles containing an yellow , one with an yew, and another with an yacht. Also a large amount, probably at least a hundred, have an young, although this is complicated since the other 400 hits are probably for the Korean name An Young.

So, my belief is that an author can validly use an with any word that starts with h, y, or a vowel.

Whether you want to do this yourself is up to you. I don’t apply this rule, the non-application of which seems equally valid.

3 Likes
506

I think it’s decided based on dialect. I wouldn’t write an unicorn, because I pronounce it like you-nicorn. I also wouldn’t write an hat, because the h isn’t silent when I pronounce it.

However, especially with your 16th to 18th century examples, It’s not unlikely that “unicorn” would have a pronunciation closer to the French / Latin origin, same with the silent h.

  • An herb garden
  • A herb garden

0 voters

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507

I’ve heard it lots of times pronounced with a silent h, so I’ve changed how I used to write it.

1 Like
508

Wait, so do you write it as “an erb garden” now?

1 Like
509

No, I write “an herb garden”, but I used to write “a herb garden”.

3 Likes