I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
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Ahhh this is a great question and one I struggled with in writing the haiku. It all rather depends…in the colloquial use it can have both. Consider the two Arsenal chants:
‘Give me an A, give me an R, give me an S, give me an EEEE, give me an N, give me an A give me an L…and what have you got? The Arsenal. (Sung with 2 syllables – the timing being The Arsenal, cha cha cha).
‘A R S E N A L, Arsenal, Arsenal’ (in this instance the word has three very distinct syllables).
Using my childhood North London twang, Arsenal for the purpose of this haiku has two syllables.
Natural adventures 
Boo to Tottenham. What fun.
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Very, very big boo to Tottenham.
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I love this! Always wonder, why is it THE Arsenal?
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It just is, and Arsenal fans are very proud of it. There is no The Chelsea or The Manchester United etc. Just us.
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Arsenal is named after the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, so they are named after a thing not a place as such
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That is right. I believe it is the only English football club that is named after a thing and not a place, but I might be wrong.
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So has ‘Arsenal’ got 2 or 3 syllables then . . . ??? 😉
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Ahhh this is a great question and one I struggled with in writing the haiku. It all rather depends…in the colloquial use it can have both. Consider the two Arsenal chants:
‘Give me an A, give me an R, give me an S, give me an EEEE, give me an N, give me an A give me an L…and what have you got? The Arsenal. (Sung with 2 syllables – the timing being The Arsenal, cha cha cha).
‘A R S E N A L, Arsenal, Arsenal’ (in this instance the word has three very distinct syllables).
Using my childhood North London twang, Arsenal for the purpose of this haiku has two syllables.
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