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A little debate going on here so I just want to know which one it is; I'm saying it's my other account since my another would be my one other account.

The other person insists they both can be used; however, I'm more than positive that it's only other in that context. Plus, my another account just sounds wrong to the ears.

Which one is it?

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It can't be "my another account" in my idiolect and in most standard dialects of English.

A standard analysis would be that the "an" element in "another" is an article, and that the use of a possessive adjective (like "my") replaces the article, so "my another ..." has effectively got the article duplicated, which you can't have.

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    This is further supported by the fact that we can say "that's another story" or — to be more emphatic — "that's a whole other story", but never "that's a whole another story". – Kosmonaut Feb 14 '11 at 21:48
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Possessive adjectives take the place of an article like an in a phrase (they're both determiners). So mixing "my" with the "an" from another is incorrect. Only My other account would be correct here.

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My another account is not correct; it is correct to say my other account.

Googling for my another, I found many instances of the phrase, but none of those are correct: sometimes who wrote it meant another of my […]; sometimes who wrote it simply meant my other.

* That is my another problem. (That is another of my problems.)
I have been suspend from my another accounted!? (My other account has been suspended?)
* My another acc. is locked, I cannot login! (My other account is blocked. I cannot log in!)
* Could you please check my another essay. (Could you please check my other essay?) * This is my another friend's profile. (This is another profile of my friend.)

Looking for my another on the Corpus of Contemporary American, and Corpus of Historical American, I found two instance of the phrase; in both the cases my another replaces my mother, and it is a transcription error, as my another is not used to mean my mother.

CARREY: Yes, for me, my mother was in pain all the time. I wanted to fix her. She was depressed, so I wanted to make her laugh. But I remember when I was eight years old actually having the thought that I want to make my mother believe she gave birth to a miracle. That was the conscience thought I had, is that I want my another to feel like her life was worth something, that she did something special. And I was going to be that something special.
KING: A conscious thought at Eight?
CARREY: Conscious thought at eight years old.
KING: Did you help her?
CARREY: I did in certain ways and I couldn't in certain ways.
—Interview with Fran Drescher; Jim Carrey Discusses Movies, Comedy and Relationships.

"I wasn't trying to hurt my father." He looked down. "I love my father."
"Then tell him so," said our mother.
Caleb looked at our father. "I'm telling you so," he said.
"Don't you love your mother, too?" she asked, smiling.
"Yes. I love my another."
"And your brother?"
He looked at me and his face changed. He smiled again, and he pulled me to him. "Yes. Oh, yes. I love my brother."
—Bloodline, Ernest J. Gaines.

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  • @Rhodri: Is that also valid for Ernest J. Gaines? – kiamlaluno Feb 14 '11 at 20:33
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    @kiamlaluno: yes; I’m pretty sure both of these examples should read “my mother”. In the second example, it’s celarly set up by the parallelism of the questions/answers: “I love my father.” […] “Don’t you love your mother too?” […] “I love my mother.” “And your brother?” […] “I love my brother.” – PLL Feb 14 '11 at 21:02
  • @PLL: I am sure that Ernest J. Gaines uses my another to mean my mother, but I am not sure he wrote my another by mistake, as he clearly wrote mother in the previous sentence. – kiamlaluno Feb 14 '11 at 21:08
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    @kiamlaluno: well — I don’t have any evidence, but I would be really, really shocked if he is deliberately using “my another” to mean “my mother”. I don’t mean to suggest he had the words confused; rather, that there is simply a typo in the text. This is just the kind of error that even good publishers occasionally make — visually, the words are very similar, so it’s easily missed in proofreading — and I’ve never heard of ‘another’ being used to mean ‘mother’, in any dialect, and can’t find it mentioned in any dictionary… – PLL Feb 14 '11 at 21:32
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    Agreed that both are likely typos. Googling for the King interview, what you have there is a transcript from Larry King Live. It also has the following at the top: "THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED." Google couldn't find the second. – Dusty Feb 15 '11 at 1:05

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