Orchid XP v8 a écrit :
> While we're on the subject of obscure grammatical edge-cases...
> 
> According to the rules, a word beginning with a vowel should be prefixed 
> with "an", otherwise it's just "a":
> 
>   A cat.
>   An elephant.
> 
> The idea - apparently - is that it's awkward to move from the sound of 
> "a" to the sound of "e" without an intervining consonant.
> 
> Now consider:
> 
>   A Europian.
> 
> Technically, according to the rules, this should in fact be
> 
>   An Europian.
> 
> which just sounds silly...
> 

Well the sound at the beginning of "European" is arguably a consonant, 
so the rule still works...

/ˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/

It even has a name :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_approximant

-- 
Vincent

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