Omission of indefinite article

[Curt Jugg]

I raised this question on another language forum and found I was in a minority of one. I hope I'll have more success here; if not, I'll have to get my hearing checked.

I have noticed an increasing tendency for the indefinite article to be omitted in speech when the following word is an adjective beginning with a schwa sound. So, for example, people say, “It was amazing experience” instead of “It was an amazing experience”.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Tdol]

Is this a general pattern or found among certain ages or in certain areas? I ask as I haven't lived in the UK for several years.

 

[Barb_D]

I can't say I've heard this in the US.

 

[5jj]

I visit the UK regularly, Manchester, London, and Hampshire. I have not heard it.

 

[Tdol]

I visit once or twice a year - London, Midlands and South East - but I haven't heard it, though it may be recent. Some article omission in things like I go toilet have been around for a long time, but this one I haven't heard.

 

[Curt Jugg]

Again, it looks as if others haven't noticed this phenomenon, so maybe I do need to get my hearing checked. Interestingly, googling "it was amazing experience" (with the quotation marks) brings up quite a few hits, but whether this is just carelessness or not I don't know.

 

[Tdol]

I'll certainly keep my ears open for it next time I'm there.

 

[cawatawa]

Language change is constant and inevitable.
According to Chomsky:determiners are always present in deep structure even they're absent in surface structure. For instance: Chomsky is called political franker: Chomsky bears a definite article in deep structure and it's called autodetermined.

 

[Tdol]

The question is not whether language change occurs, but whether a certain change has occurred.