In Germanic , /ð/ and /θ/ were separate phonemes; in Old English the original /ð/ became /d/, but a new {Link without Title} appeared as an Allophone of /θ/. In Old English, the phoneme /θ/, like all fricative phonemes in the language, had two allophones, one Voiced and one voiceless, which were distributed regularly according to phonetic environment.
- (like [v and [z]) was used between two voiced sounds (either vowels or voiced consonants).
- (like [f and [s]) was spoken in initial and final position, and also medially if adjacent to another unvoiced consonant.
Although Old English had two graphemes to represent these sounds, <þ> ( Thorn ) and <ð> ( Eth ), it used them interchangeably, unlike Old Icelandic , which used <þ> for /θ/ and <ð> for /ð/.
A number of developments have occurred since Old English, with the result that the distinction has once again become phonemic:
- In early Middle English times, a group of very common Function Words beginning with /θ/ (the, they, there, etc.) came to be pronounced with /ð/ instead. Possibly this was a Sandhi development; as these words are frequently found in unstressed positions they can sometimes appear to run on from the preceding word, which may have resulted in the dental fricative being treated as though it were word-internal.
- English has borrowed many words from Greek . Where the original Greek had the letter <θ> ( Theta ), English retained the pronunciation /θ/, regardless of phonetic environment.
- English has lost its original verb inflections. When the stem of a verb ends with a dental fricative, this was usually followed by a vowel in Old English, and was therefore voiced. It is still voiced in modern English, even though the verb inflection has disappeared leaving the /ð/ at the end of the word. Examples are ''to bathe, to mouth, to breathe''. Often a remnant of the old inflection can be seen in the spelling in the form of a silent ; viewed synchronically, this may be regarded as a marker of the fact that the fricative is voiced.
As a result of these three developments, there are a very small number of minimal pairs in Modern English which demonstrate that /ð/ and /θ/ are distinct phonemes.
- ''thigh : thy'' - in initial position we expect /θ/, but ''thy'' belongs to the group of Middle English anomalies.
- ''ether : either'' - between two vowels we expect /ð/, but ''ether'' is borrowed from Greek.
- ''loath : loathe'' - in final position we expect /θ/, but the
in ''loathe'' was originally not final, as the was once pronounced. Likewise: ''wreath : wreathe'', ''sheath : sheathe'', ''sooth : soothe'', ''teeth : teethe'', ''mouth (noun) : mouth (verb)''
The vast majority of words in English with have the voiceless sound, and almost all newly created words follow this. Exceptions:
- A small number of common function words beginning with 'th-' (the Middle English anomalies mentioned above) have /ð/ ( others beginning with 'th-' have /θ/). The words in this group are:
- 5 demonstratives: ''the, this, that, these, those''
- 2 personal pronouns each with four forms: ''thou, thee, thy, thine; they, them, their, theirs''
- 7 adverbs and conjunctions: ''there, then, than, thus, though, thence, thither''
- Various compound adverbs based on the above words: ''therefore, thereupon, thereby, thereafter, thenceforth, etc.''
- Most words ending in (and many containing) 'ther', when it follows a vowel or 'r', have /ð/.
- Ending in '-ther', following a vowel: ''bother, brother, dither, either, father, Heather, lather, mother, other, rather, slither, together, weather, whether, wither'', etc. (But not ''ether'' or ''Luther''.)
- Ending in '-ther', following an 'r': ''farther, further''. (But ''panther'' with /θ/, because not following a vowel or 'r'; ''Arthur'' with /θ/, because not written '-ther'.)
- Containing 'ther', following a vowel: ''northern, southern, smithereens''; ''Caruthers, Gaithersburg, Netherlands, Witherspoon'', and similar compound names where the first component ends in '-ther' or '-thers'. ''Rutherford'' has either /ð/ or /θ/. ''Catherine'' has /θ/.
- Words ending in '-the' -- usually verbs -- have /ð/. Related nouns and adjectives usually end in '-th' and have /θ/.
- Examples: ''bathe, breathe, clothe, loathe, scathe, seethe, sheathe, soothe, teethe, wreathe, writhe'' (all verbs). Compare the nouns and adjectives ''bath, breath, cloth, loath, sheath, sooth, tooth/teeth, wreath''.
- Similarly: ''scythe'' (verb or noun), ''tithe'' (verb or noun), ''lathe'' (noun), ''lithe'' (adjective), ''clothes'' (plural noun). ''blythe'' with either /ð/ or /θ/.
- Note also ''mouth'' as a verb with /ð/, but as a noun with /θ/, despite the identical spelling; ''smooth'' always with /ð/, regardless of part of speech; ''froth'' with either /θ/ or /ð/ as a verb, but /θ/ only as a noun.
- Words in '-thing' that are derived from the above verbs follow their pronunciation: ''bathing, breathing, clothing, loathing, scathing'', etc. with /ð/; ''frothing'' with either /θ/ or /ð/. (But ''anything, everything, nothing, something'' with /θ/, because they are compounds of ''thing''.)
- Some plural nouns ending in 'ths', with a preceding vowel, have /ðz/, although the singulars always have /θ/.
- ''mouths'' always ends with /ðz/.
- Certain other words typically end with /ðz/, but a pronunciation with /θs/ also occurs: ''baths, cloths, oaths, paths, sheaths, truths, wreaths, youths''; ''booths'' sometimes with /ðz/ (more commonly in British English ).
- Others have only /θs/: ''azimuths, breaths, deaths, faiths, Goths, growths, mammoths, moths, myths, smiths, sloths, zeniths'', etc. This includes all words in 'th' preceded by a consonant (''earths'', ''hearths'', ''lengths'', ''months'', ''widths'', etc.) and all numeric words, whether preceded by vowel or consonant (''fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths /eɪtθs/, twelfths, fifteenths, twentieths, hundredths /hʌndrədθs/, thousandths'', etc.; note that these words involve some of the most complicated and difficult-to-pronounce clusters in the English language).
- A few other words with
have /ð/:
- At the end of a word: ''with'' (often, but see below); ''smooth''; ''booth'' (British English only). See also the above comments on ''mouth'' and ''froth''. Compounds involving ''with'' follow the simple form: ''within'', ''without'', ''withdraw'', ''withhold'', ''withstand'', ''wherewithal'', etc.
- Between vowels: ''heathen'', ''fathom'', probably a few others.
- In the combination 'rth': ''worthy'', ''swarthy'', ''Worthington'', ''farthing'' (but not ''earthy'').
- In the combination 'thm': ''algorithm, isthmus, logarithm, rhythm''. Also ''asthma'', though here the
is nowadays usually silent.
- 'brethren'.
All other words, including most words with 'th' between vowels or other voiced sounds (including many words of Old English origin), have /θ/.
- Examples between vowels or voiced sounds: ''Abernathy, Agatha, anthem, atheist, Athens, athlete, author, bathroom, Bertha, brothel, cathedral, Catherine, Cathy, enthusiasm, ethics, ethnic, Gothic, Hathaway, healthy, Jonathan, lethal, lithium, mathematics, method, methyl, mythical, Othello, Parthian, pathetic, pithy, Southampton, stealthy, sympathy, wealthy'', etc.
The digraph is pronounced /t/ in some names, such as Thames and Thomas, and usually Esther and Gunther.
The noun and verb alternations discussed above date back to Old English. The noun alternation in ''mouth''/''mouths'', for example, is due to the fact that the plural marker in Old English was /as/, and hence the in the plural form was between vowels. (Note also the similar alternations in ''wolf'' vs. ''wolves'' and ''house'' vs. ''houses''.)
The above discussion follows Daniel Jones ' English Pronouncing Dictionary , the authority on standard British English , and Webster's New World College Dictionary , an authority on American English . Usage appears much the same between the two. Regional variation within standard English includes the following:
- The final consonant in ''with'' is pronounced /θ/ (its original pronunciation) in northern Britain , but /ð/ in the south, though some speakers of Southern British English use /θ/ before a voiceless consonant and /ð/ before a voiced one. A 1993 postal poll of American English speakers showed that 84% use /θ/, while 16% have /ð/ (Shitara 1993). (The variant with /ð/ is presumably a Sandhi development.)
- In Scottish English , /θ/ is found in many words which have /ð/ further south. The phenomenon of nouns terminating in /θ/ taking plurals in /ðz/ does not occur in the north. Thus the following have /θs/: ''baths'', ''mouths'' (noun), ''truths''. Scottish English does have the termination /ðz/ in verb forms, however, such as ''bathes'', ''mouths'' (verb), ''loathes'', and also in the noun ''clothes'', which is a special case, as it has to be clearly distinguished from ''cloths''. Scottish English also has /θ/ in ''with, booth, thither, thence'' etc. Where there is an American-British difference, the North of Britain generally agrees with America on this phoneme pair.
In standard English, both in Britain and America, the phonetic realisation of these phonemes shows less variation than for many other English consonants. Both are pronounced either interdentally, with the blade of the tongue resting against the lower part of the back of the upper teeth and the tip protruding slightly (though less prominently than for the corresponding sound in Spanish) or alternatively with the tip of the tongue against the back of the upper teeth. These two positions may be free varients, but for some speakers they are complementary allophones, the position behind the teeth being used when the dental fricative stands in proximity to an alveolar fricative, as in ''clothes'' (/ðz/) or ''myths'' (/θs/).
The difference between /θ/ and /ð/ is normally described as a voiceless-voiced contrast, as this is the aspect native speakers are most aware of. However the two phonemes are also distinguished by other phonetic markers. There is a difference of energy (see: Fortis And Lenis ), the fortis /θ/ being pronounced with more muscular tension than the lenis /ð/. Also, /θ/ is more strongly aspirated than /ð/, as can be demonstrated by holding a hand a few centimeters in front of the mouth and noticing the differing force of the puff of air created by the articulatory process.
As with many English consonants, a process of assimilation can result in the substitution of other speech sounds in certain phonetic environments. Most surprising to native speakers, who do this subconsciously, is the use of and [l as realisations of /ð/ in the following phrases (examples from Collins and Mees p,103):
/θ/ and /ð/ can also be lost through elision. In rapid speech, ''sixths'' may be pronounced like ''six'', and ''them'' may be shortened (even in writing) to '''em''.
In some areas such as London , many people realize the phonemes /θ/ and /ð/ as and [v respectively ( Th-fronting ). Although stigmatized as typical of a Cockney accent, this pronunciation is fairly widespread, and in at least one case has been transferred into standard English as a neologism: a ''bovver boy'' is a thug, a "boy" who likes "bother" (aggro).
Many speakers of Hiberno-English use a Voiceless Dental Plosive (still usually distinct from alveolar /t, d/) instead of, or in Free Variation with, the fricatives /θ, ð/ ( Th-stopping ). In African American Vernacular English , /ð/ is often pronounced {Link without Title} , especially in unstressed words (for example ''the'', ''them'', ''with'').
Children generally learn the less Marked phonemes of their native language before the more marked ones. In the case of English-speaking children, /θ/ and /ð/ are often among the last phonemes to be learned, frequently not being mastered before the age of five. Prior to this age, many children substitute the sounds and [v respectively. For small children, ''fought'' and ''thought'' are therefore homophones. As British and American children begin school at five, this means that many are learning to read and write before they have sorted out these sounds, and the infantile pronunciation is frequently reflected in their spelling errors: ''ve fing'' for ''the thing''.
Children with a Lisp , however, have trouble distinguishing /θ/ and /ð/ from /s/ and /z/ respectively, using a single or pronunciation for both, and may never master the correct sounds without speech therapy. This is by far the most common speech impediment in English.
Foreign learners may have parallel problems. In English popular culture the substitution of /z/ for /ð/ is a common way of parodying a French accent, but in fact learners from very many cultural backgrounds have difficulties with English dental fricatives, usually caused by interference with either Sibilants or Stops . Words with a dental fricative adjacent to an alveolar sibilant, such as ''clothes'', ''truths'', ''fifths'', ''sixths'', ''anesthetic'', etc., are commonly very difficult for foreign learners to pronounce.
Though English speakers take it for granted, the digraph is in fact not an obvious combination for a dental fricative. The origins of this have to do with developments in Greek.
Proto-Indo-European had an Aspirated which came into Greek as , spelled with the letter theta. In the Greek of Homer and Plato this was still pronounced , and therefore when Greek words were borrowed into Latin theta was transcribed with . Since sounds like /t/ with a following puff of air, was the logical spelling in the Latin alphabet.
By the time of New Testament Greek (, and which it represents in the IPA . From a Latin perspective, the established digraph now represented the voiceless fricative /θ/, and was used thus for English by French-speaking scribes after the Norman Conquest , since they were unfamiliar with the Germanic graphemes eth and thorn. Likewise, the spelling was used for /θ/ in Old High German prior to the completion of the High German Consonant Shift , again by analogy with the way Latin represented the Greek sound.
Since neither nor /θ/ was a native sound in Latin, the tendency must have emerged early, and at the latest by medieval Latin, to substitute /t/. Thus in many modern languages, including French and German, the digraph is used in Greek loan-words to represent an original /θ/, but is now pronounced /t/. This has influenced the English spelling–pronunciation conventions in ''Thomas'' and ''Thames''.
The history of the digraphs for /f/ and for Scots or German /x/ is parallel.
- Beverly Collins and Inger M. Mees (2003), ''Practical Phonetics and Phonology'', Routledge, ISBN 0-415-26133-3.
- Shitara, Yuko (1993). "A survey of American pronunciation preferences." ''Speech Hearing and Language'' 7: 201–32.
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