That looks like a repeat to me.

Thanks for the link! I probably should have realized this had already been discussed in this thread.

And I suppose what I've learned from it is that there isn't really an agreed-upon correct answer, haha. But I'm definitely going to be saying "a historic day" with confidence and pride now!

To the contrary, that's almost surely what he is. This is an English (as in UK) vs. American distinction. It's my sense that most or all u-class / educated speakers in England write and say "an historic". (I don't know if the rest of the Brits do, there being so many dialectical variations.) Almost no American says or writes "an historic".

When I first moved to Canada "an historic" was standard here; now it is less so (Canadian style having become somewhat more Americanized), but I do still see it in university course descriptions and the like.

Compare "among" vs. "amongst."

WSOP on ESPN Edition

(Baron wins a big pot)

"... to Baron, who was the benefactor of that big pot."

C'mon Lon.

On the contrary, I am a native speaker of English who teaches foreign languages to other native speakers of English. As such, I pay extreme amounts of attention to subtle varieties of English pronunciation to be able to explain, for example, the difference between the Arabic letters "hah" and "heh."

Almost (but not quite) any sound made in any foreign language shows up somewhere in English, even if it is rare and undefined. For example, the English "word" uh-uh (as in the sound meaning "no") consists entirely of voweled glottal stops, a sound many linguist claim is not extant in English.

Try paying very close attention to your throat as you say "hello" and then "hot!" If you speak with a standard North American inflection, you will note that your throat is more constricted when you say "hot!"

Really? That seems unlikely to me.

What about the Spanish fricative /g/, which comes up in Arabic a lot too?

And the Spanish trill /r/?

Don't see either of those in English.

I don't feel any difference, but then I don't hear any difference between Mary, merry or marry either.

lol

Here to add the Xhosa clicking sound also does not show up in English. We've identified three just off the bat!

!

Also, the glottal quack from the language of the Europa space butterfly doesn't exist in English.

This is accurate. The Arabic "Ghain" is another, AFAICT. The fricative G sound is relatively common in English when properly pronouncing words of Germanic origin, such as "loch," though most native speakers of English elide it into "lock." Other sounds do appear in English (usage), just not necessarily in standard morphology. For example, many umpires us a trilled R when they say "yourrr-OUT!"

lol...that's an abortion of a post

Not sure how common it is in reality, but trilling the r is definitely part of stereotypical Scottish English.

the dutch "eu", "ui" and "ei"/"ij" sounds all dont appear in english. thats just 3 from one language

naw it disnae

Is that in a gay bar?

From the Facebook app 21 questions: "Do you think that Steve Rogers grinds their teeth while sleeping?"

I once had a sorta-girlfriend from South Africa whose dog's name was !Xhosa. That was fun to learn to say.

they just say co-sa in south africa

No, why would you think it is? It's a kiosk in a casino.

Well played. (Even though he didn't get the joke).

Here's an amusing instance of the less/fewer countability issue...

From another thread: "Fewer than 25% of all 'yoga teachers' in the US have ANY type of formal training..." I think that this is correct as written because the yoga teachers are countable, but after writing it the writer (my fiancée) wasn't sure it scanned quite right, and I admit it sounds a bit off.

Another reason that I think you can tell that "fewer" is correct here is that she used, correctly imo, the verb "have". I would think that if "less" were correct, it would be "has".

But still, there's the sense that it might be a bit off, so I invite comment.