1994: PHANZA
January 20, 2021
By AHNZ
PHANZA (Professional Historians’ Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa)might be fans of history but they’re not fans’a grammar…
“WORKING AS A HISTORIAN”
Yeesh, PHANZA. The proper grammer is not ‘a historian’ but ‘an historian’. This lapse makes this professional historians association seem like a kid who flunked out of school. Or, an American!
PHANZA was established in December 1994 as a trade union for historians who make their living as professional historians. The un-New Zealand gramma of putting ‘a’ instead of ‘an’ dates back to their very first newsletter’s very first issue (Phanzine.)
The fact that the venue for their inaugural meeting was PSA House, Wellington, goes to show they knew which side of their bread was buttered. If Anarchist Historians ever created a professional organisation the Public Service Association would not be offering a venue! We’d much prefer a pirate ship.
—
It worries me less that the Professional Historians’ Association
of New Zealand Aotearoa can’t grammar than that none of their collective professionals picked up on that error
Ref. https://phanza.org.nz/
Ref. Phanzine (1995)
Like Comment Share
