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Citation Information
How to Cite
Hendrickson, Robert. "a." Writer's Reference Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 1 May 2025. <http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOAR09290>.
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http://fofweb.infobase.com/wrc/Detail.aspx?iPin=DOAR09290

a

Region
American West

Definition 
Perhaps only UGH! has been deemed by dime novels and Hollywood to be more representative of American Indian speech than the omission of a as an article. Willa Cather made an interesting observation on this American Indian habit (and there is no telling how widespread the habit really was) in Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927): "'Have you a son?' 'One. Baby. Not very long born.' Jacinto usually dropped the article in speaking Spanish, just as he did in speaking English, though the Bishop had noticed that when he did give a noun its article, he used the right one. The customary omission, therefore, seemed a matter of taste, not ignorance. In the Indian conception of language, such attachments were superfluous and unpleasing, perhaps."

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