The missing “a” in Armstrong’s step on the moon
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Neil Armstrong, as he stepped on the moon, purportedly said, “That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” Now a careful analysis of the original noisy recording has revealed that he actually said, “That’s one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.”
“Man” — without the article–already stands for all of mankind, and in fact the first interpretation or way of hearing Armstrong’s pronouncement made the words so powerful as it built up from the symbolic singular to the compound plural. One had the sense that a man trained in engineering and not particularly good in articulating his feelings, suddenly overcome by realizing the significance of the moment, gets hold of this lofty article-less word, Man, which then reverberates through the news forever.
“A man,” in contrast, brings us into the prosaic world of bar talk; talking to his friends, for instance, he would refer to himself in this way after doing some heavy lifting or shooting ducks the day before. There are so many expressions starting with “a man needs . . .” that always convey a sense of entitlement. In the phrase “A man” all his bear-like nature, his quintessential loneliness, his need for some peace and quiet away from his family, are contained.
What I found very interesting, though, is that the linguist who wrote the article, Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk, focused on the ambiguities of pronunciation only and missed the huge semantic difference.
[In English, by the way, it is taken for granted — in the construct “mankind” — that the whole human race is defined by the male. In German, in contrast, there is the word Mensch, for a human, and Menschheit for the genderless concept of mankind. “Mensch” lacks a gender in concept, although, interestingly, its gender as defined by the German pronoun “der” is still male].
[We are also reminded of the gold plaque on board of Voyager, engraved with the sketch of a naked couple that is supposed to stand for the sentient race inhabiting and dominating this planet. Here nothing except the size would possibly establish the dominance of the male.]
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