The word "а"

I get a lot of spam on my blog in Russian for some reason. Anywhere, here's a line:

Автор, а вы из какого города ?

I don't understand the usage of "а" in this context. Rambler doesn't help me. http://www.rambler.ru/dict/scripts/go.c ... &query=%E0

When I learned it, I thought it just meant "and/but". But neither of those seems to make sense in this context. In English: "Author, [and/but] which city are you from?" doesn't sound right. Perhaps it is just spam nonsense.

Without "а" it's just a question

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fletcher

Автор, вы из какого города?
Author, which city are you from?

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With "а" the question gets some emotional sense.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fletcher

Автор, а вы из какого города?
Author, what about you? Which city are you from?

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by fletcher

I get a lot of spam on my blog in Russian for some reason. Anywhere, here's a line:

Автор, а вы из какого города ?

I don't understand the usage of "а" in this context.

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There can be two main different senses depending on the context (and pronounced with different intonation stress).

1) "And what about you"
Автор, а вы из какого города?

And what about you, Author? Which city are you from?

2) "By the way" or "So"...

Автор, а вы из какого города?

By the way, Author, which city are you from?

Both meanings imply that there was some previous content. Generally, conjunction "A" is used to coordinate two different phrases (or whatever) when there is no expressed enumeration ("and") or contraposition ("but").