For forty years they’ve been at it. Scientists, linguists, scholars and every type of researcher imaginable have been in search of the answer to the question uppermost in people’s minds during those four decades.
Now, finally, it appears to be resolved.
A linguistic analysis has apparently confirmed that Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on that big lump of green cheese in the sky, did actually miss out the letter ‘a’ in what was to become an iconic phrase.
Instead of:
One small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind
He said:
One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind
The latest research shows that he intended to say ‘a’ but that this was lost, perhaps due to the pressure of the moment. Earlier research had suggested such things as static interference being the cause of the lost ‘a’ or that Armstrong’s heavy Ohio accent made it just sound as though it was missing.
Armstrong himself, when returning to Earth, thought he had actually said ‘a man’. How wrong can you be?
Glad this one has hopefully been sorted out, now the world’s great minds can relax and concentrate on some of the more minor issues affecting the planet.