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| History and description of |
| English pronunciation |
|---|
| Historical stages |
| General development |
| Development of vowels |
| Development of consonants |
| Variable features |
| Related topics |
In English, the digraph ⟨th⟩ represents in most cases either one or the other of two phonemes: the voiced dental fricative /ð/ (as in this) and the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ (as in thing). Occasionally, it stands for /t/ (as in Thailand, or Thomas) or the cluster /tθ/ (as in eighth). In compound words, ⟨th⟩ may be a consonant sequence rather than a digraph (as in the /t.h/ of lighthouse).
General description
In standard English, the phonetic realization of the two dental fricative phonemes shows less variation than many other English consonants. Both are pronounced either interdentally, i.e. with the blade of the tongue resting against the lower part of the back of the upper teeth and the tip protruding slightly, or with the tip of the tongue against the back of the upper teeth. For some speakers these two positions are in free variation, while for other speakers they are in complementary distribution, the position behind the teeth being used when the dental fricative stands in proximity to an alveolar fricative /s/ or /z/, as in myths (/θs/) or clothes (/ðz/). Lip configuration may vary depending on phonetic context. The vocal folds are abducted. The velopharyngeal port is closed. Air forced between tongue surface and cutting edge of the upper teeth (interdental) or inside surface of the teeth (dental) creates audible frictional turbulence.
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.
Phonology and distribution
In modern English, /θ/ and /ð/ bear a phonemic relationship to each other, as is demonstrated by the presence of a small number of minimal pairs: thigh:thy, ether:either, teeth:teethe. Thus they are distinct phonemes (units of sound, differences in which can affect meaning), as opposed to allophones (different pronunciations of a phoneme having no effect on meaning). They are distinguished from the neighbouring labiodental fricatives, sibilants and alveolar stops by such minimal pairs as thought:fought/sought/taught and then:Venn/Zen/den.
The vast majority of words in English with ⟨th⟩ have /θ/, and almost all newly created words do. However, the constant recurrence of the function words, particularly the, means that /ð/ is nevertheless more frequent in actual use.
The distribution pattern may be summed up in the following rule of thumb, which is valid in most cases: in an initial position, /θ/ is used except in certain function words; in a medial position, /ð/ is used except for certain foreign loan words; and in final position, /θ/ is used except in certain verbs. A more detailed explanation follows.
Initial position
- Almost all words beginning with a dental fricative have /θ/.
- A small number of common function words (the Middle English anomalies mentioned below) begin with /ð/. The words in this group are:
- 1 definite article: the
- 4 demonstratives: this, that, these, those
- 2 personal pronouns each with multiple forms: thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself; they, them, their, theirs, themselves, themself
- 7 adverbs and conjunctions: there, then, than, thus, though, thence, thither (though in the United States thence and thither may be pronounced with initial /θ/[1])
- Various compound adverbs based on the above words: therefore, thereupon, thereby, thereafter, thenceforth, etc.
- A few words have an initial ⟨th⟩ for /t/ (e.g. Thomas): see below.
Medial position
- Most native words with a medial ⟨th⟩ have /ð/.
- Between vowels (including r-colored vowels), followed by a weak vowel: heathen, farthing, fathom, Worthington; and the frequent combination -ther-: bother, brother, dither, either, farther, father, further, heather, lather, mother, northern, other, rather, smithereens, slither, southern, together, weather, whether, wither; Caruthers, Netherlands, Witherspoon.
- Followed by /r/: brethren.
- A few native words have a medial /θ/:
- The suffixes -y, -ly, -ing and -ed normally leave terminal /θ/ unchanged: earthy, healthy, pithy, stealthy, wealthy, bothy (from booth); fourthly, monthly; earthing; frothed; but worthy and swarthy have /ð/.
- Some plurals have /θs/, as discussed in more detail below: cloths, baths etc.
- Compound words in which the first element ends or the second element begins with ⟨th⟩ frequently have /θ/, as these elements would in isolation: bathroom, Southampton; anything, everything, nothing, something.
- The only other native words with medial /θ/ would seem to be brothel (usually) and Ethel.
- Most loan words with a medial ⟨th⟩ have /θ/.
- From Greek: Agatha, anthem, atheist, Athens, athlete, cathedral, Catherine, Cathy, enthusiasm, ether, ethics, ethnic, lethal, lithium, mathematics, method, methyl, mythical, panther, pathetic, sympathy
- From Latin: author, authority (though in Latin these had /t/; see below). Also names borrowed from or via Latin: Bertha, Gothic, Hathaway, Othello, Parthian
- From Celtic languages: Arthur (Welsh has /θ/ medially: /ærθɨr/); Abernathy, Abernethy, as an anglicization, though Gaelic has no /θ/.
- From Hebrew: Ethan, Jonathan, Bethlehem, Bethany, Leviathan, Bethel
- From German: Luther, as an anglicized spelling pronunciation (see below).
- Loanwords with medial /ð/:
- Greek words with the combination -thm-: algorithm, logarithm, rhythm. Exception : arithmetic /əˈrɪθmətɪk/. The word asthma may be pronounced /ˈæzðmə/ or /ˈæsθmə/, though here the ⟨th⟩ is usually silent.
- A few words have a medial ⟨th⟩ for /t/ or /th/ (e.g. lighthouse): see below.
Final position
- Nouns and adjectives
- Nouns and adjectives ending in a dental fricative usually have /θ/: bath, breath, cloth, froth, health, hearth, loath, mouth, sheath, sooth, tooth/teeth, width, wreath.
- Exceptions are usually marked in the spelling with a silent ⟨e⟩: tithe, lathe, lithe with /ð/.
- blithe can have either /ð/ or /θ/. booth has /ð/ in England but /θ/ in America.
- Verbs
- Verbs ending in a dental fricative usually have /ð/, and are frequently spelled with a silent ⟨e⟩: bathe, breathe, clothe, loathe, scathe, scythe, seethe, sheathe, soothe, teethe, tithe, wreathe, writhe. Spelled without ⟨e⟩: mouth (verb) nevertheless has /ð/.
- froth has /θ/ whether as a noun or as a verb.
- The verb endings -s, -ing, -ed do not change the pronunciation of a ⟨th⟩ in the final position in the stem: bathe has /ð/, therefore so do bathed, bathing, bathes; frothing has /θ/. Likewise clothing used as a noun, scathing as an adjective etc.
- The archaic verb inflection "-eth" has /θ/.
- Others
- with has either /θ/ or /ð/ (see below), as do its compounds: within, without, outwith, withdraw, withhold, withstand, wherewithal, etc.
Plurals
- Plural ⟨s⟩ after ⟨th⟩ may be realized as either /ðz/ or /θs/:
- Some plural nouns ending in ⟨ths⟩, with a preceding vowel, have /ðz/, although the singulars always have /θ/; however, a variant in /θs/ will be found for many of these: baths, mouths, oaths, paths, sheaths, truths, wreaths, youths exist in both varieties; clothes always has /ðz/ (if not pronounced /kloʊz/[2]).
- Others have only /θs/: azimuths, breaths, cloths, 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).
- Booth has /ð/ in the singular and hence /ðz/ in the plural for most speakers in England.[citation needed] In American English, it has /θ/ in the singular and /θs/ or /ðz/ in the plural. This pronunciation also prevails in Scotland.
Grammatical alternation
In pairs of related words, an alternation between /θ/ and /ð/ is possible, which may be thought of as a kind of consonant mutation. Typically /θ/ appears in the singular of a noun, /ð/ in the plural and in the related verb: cloth /θ/, clothes /ð/, to clothe /ð/. This is directly comparable to the /s/-/z/ or /f/-/v/ alternation in house, houses or wolf, wolves. It goes back to the allophonic variation in Old English (see below), where it was possible for ⟨þ⟩ to be in final position and thus voiceless in the basic form of a word, but in medial position and voiced in a related form. The loss of inflections then brought the voiced medial consonant to the end of the word. Often a remnant of the old inflection can be seen in the spelling in the form of a silent ⟨e⟩, which may be thought of synchronically as a marker of the voicing.
Regional differences in distribution
The above discussion follows Daniel Jones' English Pronouncing Dictionary, an 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 can be realized without /ð/. Scottish English also has /θ/ in with, booth, thence etc., and the Scottish pronunciation of thither, almost uniquely, has both /θ/ and /ð/ in the same word. Where there is an American-British difference, the North of Britain generally agrees with the United States on this phoneme pair.
- Some dialects of American English use /ð/ at the beginning of the word "thank".
History of the English phonemes
Germanic origins
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had no dental fricatives, but these evolved in the earliest stages of the Germanic languages. In Proto-Germanic, /ð/ and /θ/ were separate phonemes, usually represented in Germanic studies by the symbols *đ and *þ.
- *đ (/ð/) was derived by Grimm's law from PIE *dʰ or by Verner's law (i.e. when immediately following an unstressed syllable) from PIE *t.
- *þ (/θ/) was derived by Grimm's law from PIE *t.
In West Germanic, the Proto-Germanic *đ shifted further to *d, leaving only one dental fricative phoneme. However, a new appeared as an allophone of /θ/ in medial positions by assimilation of the voicing of the surrounding vowels. remained in initial and presumably in final positions (though later terminal devoicing would in any case have eliminated the evidence of final ). This West Germanic phoneme, complete with its distribution of allophones, survived into Old English. In German and Dutch, it shifted to a /d/, the allophonic distinction simply being lost. In German, West Germanic *d shifted to /t/ in what may be thought of as a chain shift, but in Dutch, *þ, *đ and *d merged into a single /d/.
The whole complex of Germanic dentals, and the place of the fricatives within it, can be summed up in this table:
| PIE | Proto-Germanic | West Germanic | Old English | German | Dutch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *t | *þ | * | /d/ | /d/ | Original *t in initial position, or in final position after a stressed vowel | |
| * | Original *t in medial position after a stressed vowel | |||||
| *đ | *d | /d/ | /t/ | Original *t after an unstressed vowel | ||
| *dʰ | Original *dʰ in all positions | |||||
| *d | *t | *t | /t/ | /s/ or /ts/ | /t/ | Original *d in all positions |
Note that this table shows only the basic rules. The actual developments in all of the mentioned languages are more complicated (due to dialectal variation, peculiar developments in consonant clusters, etc.). For more on these phonemes from a comparative perspective, see Grammatischer Wechsel. For the developments in German and Dutch see High German consonant shift.
Old English
Thus English inherited a phoneme /θ/ in positions where other West Germanic languages have /d/ and most other Indo-European languages have /t/: English three, German drei, Latin tres.
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 and ) 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/.
Development up to Modern Englishedit
The most important development on the way to modern English was the investing of the existing distinction between ð and θ with phonemic value. Minimal pairs, and hence the phonological independence of the two phones, developed as a result of three main processes.
- 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 of /θ/. 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. This allowed a word-initial minimal pair like thigh:thy.
- English has borrowed many words from Greek, including a vast number of scientific terms. Where the original Greek had the letter ⟨θ⟩ (theta), English usually retained the Late Greek pronunciation regardless of phonetic environment, resulting in the presence of /θ/ in medial position (anthem, methyl, etc.). This allowed a medial minimal pair like ether:either.
- 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. Sometimes a remnant of the original vowel remained in the spelling (see: Silent e), but this was inconsistent. This allowed a minimal pair in final position like loath:loathe.
Other changes that affected these phonemes included a shift /d/ → /ð/ when followed by unstressed suffix -er. Thus Old English fæder became modern English father; likewise mother, gather, hither, together, weather (from mōdor, gaderian, hider, tōgædere, weder). In a reverse process, Old English byrþen and morþor or myþra become burden and murder (compare the obsolete variants burthen and murther).
Dialectally, the alternation between /d/ and /ð/ sometimes extends to other words, as bladder, ladder, solder with /ð/ (possibly being restricted elsewhere by the former two clashing with blather and lather). On the other hand, some dialects retain original d, and extend it to other words, as brother, further, rather. The Welsh name Llewelyn appears in older English texts as Thlewelyn (Rolls of Parliament (Rotuli parliamentorum) I. 463/1, King Edward I or II), and Fluellen (Shakespeare, Henry V). Th also occurs dialectally for wh, as in thirl, thortleberry, thorl, for whirl, whortleberry, whorl. Conversely, Scots has whaing, whang, white, whittle, for thwaing, thwang, thwite, thwittle.
The old verb inflection -eth (Old English -eþ) was replaced by -s (he singeth → he sings), not a sound shift but a completely new inflection.
Dialectal realizationsedit
In some dialects the "th"-sound phonemes /θ/ and /ð/ are pronounced differently from the dental fricatives θ and ð. Most common are: substitution with labiodental fricatives f and v (fronting), substitution with alveolar stops t and d (stopping), and substitution with alveolar fricatives s and z (alveolarization). Fronting and stopping are more common among speakers of English dialects, whereas alveolarization is more common among language learners whose first languages are French, German, or Mandarin. To speakers of varieties in which /θ/ and /ð/ are pronounced θ and ð, fronting and stopping are generally considered to have less of a marked contrast with the standard pronunciation than alveolarization, which is often more stigmatized.
A fourth, less common substitution is h for /θ/ word-initially or intervocalically. This is called debuccalization, and somewhat prevalent in Scottish English.
th-frontingedit
In some areas, such as London, and certain dialects, including African American Vernacular English and less commonly New Zealand, many people realize the phonemes /θ/ and /ð/ as f and v, respectively. Although traditionally stigmatized as typical of a Cockney accent, this pronunciation is fairly widespread, especially when immediately surrounded by other fricatives for ease of pronunciation, and has, in the early 20th century, become an increasingly noticeable feature of the Estuary English accent of South East England. It has in at least one case been transferred into standard English as a neologism: a bovver boy is a thug, a "boy" who likes "bother" (fights). Joe Brown and his Bruvvers was a Pop group of the 1960s. The song "Fings ain't wot they used t'be" was the title song of a 1959 Cockney comedy. Similarly, a New Zealander from the northernmost parts of the country might state that he or she is from "Norfland".
Note that, at least in Cockney, a word beginning with /ð/ (as opposed to its voiceless counterpart /θ/) can never be labiodental. Instead, it is realized as any of ð, ð̞, d, l, ʔ, or is dropped altogether.[3][4]
th-stoppingedit
Many speakers of African American Vernacular English, Caribbean English, Liberian English, Nigerian English, Philadelphia English, and Philippine English (along with other Asian English varieties) pronounce the fricatives /θ, ð/ as alveolar stops t, d. Similarly, but still distinctly, many speakers of New York City English, Chicago English, Boston English, Indian English, Newfoundland English, and Hiberno-English use the dental stops t̪, d̪ (typically distinct from alveolar t, d) instead of, or in free variation with, θ, ð. Native speakers of most Indo-Aryan languages often substitute the dental fricatives θ, ð with the voiceless aspirated and voiced dental stops t̪ʰ, d̪, respectively.
In Cockney, the th-stopping may occur when a word begins with /ð/ (but not its voiceless counterpart /θ/).[3][4] This is also associated with the accent of the English city of Sheffield (such as the nickname dee-dahs for residents) but such pronunciations are now confined to the very oldest residents of Sheffield.[5]
th-alveolarizationedit
Th-alveolarization is a process that occurs in some African varieties of English where the dental fricatives /θ, ð/ merge with the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/. It is an example of assibilation.
In rarer or older varieties of African American Vernacular English, /θ/ may be pronounced s after a vowel and before another consonant, as in bathroom ˈbæsɹum.[6]
Th-alveolarization is often parodied as typical of French- and German-speaking learners of English, but it is widespread among many other foreign learners because the dental fricative "th" sounds are not very common among the world's languages. Due to the said ridicule, learners who are unable to realize these sounds sometimes opt for the less marked th-fronting or th-stopping instead of alveolarization.[citation needed]
| /s, z/ | /θ, ð/ | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ace | eighth | ˈeɪs | eighth more often merges with eights (see below) |
| bass | bath | ˈbæs | bass, the fish; but distinct in dialects with broad A |
| Bess | Beth | ˈbɛs | |
| breeze | breathe | ˈbɹiːz | |
| close | clothe | ˈkloʊz | |
| close | clothes | ˈkloʊz | |
| eights | eighth | ˈeɪts | |
| Erse | earth | ˈɜː(r)s | |
| face | faith | ˈfeɪs | |
| force | forth | ˈfoə(r)s | |
| force | fourth | ˈfoə(r)s | |
| frost | frothed | ˈfrɒst, ˈfrɔːst | |
| gross | growth | ˈɡroʊs | |
| kiss | kith | ˈkɪs | |
| lays | lathe | ˈleɪz | |
| laze | lathe | ˈleɪz | |
| lies | lithe | ˈlaɪz | |
| louse | Louth | ˈlaʊs | |
| lyse | lithe | ˈlaɪz | |
| mass | math | ˈmæs | |
| mess | meth | ˈmɛs | |
| miss | myth | ˈmɪs | |
| months | month | ˈmʌns | |
| moss | moth | ˈmɒs, ˈmɔːs | |
| mouse | mouth | ˈmaʊs | |
| pass | path | ˈpæs, ˈpɑːs | |
| piss | pith | ˈpɪs | |
| purse | Perth | ˈpɜː(r)s | |
| race | wraith | ˈreɪs | |
| rise | writhe | ˈraɪz | |
| Ross | Roth | ˈrɒs, ˈrɔːs | |
| ryes | writhe | ˈraɪz | |
| sai | thigh | ˈsaɪ | |
| sane | thane | ˈseɪn | |
| sane | thegn | ˈseɪn | |
| sank | thank | ˈsæŋk | |
| saw | thaw | ˈsɔː | |
| saw | Thor | ˈsɔː | In most Non-rhotic accents; specifically those without the Cot-caught merger. |
| seam | theme | ˈsiːm | |
| seas | seethe | ˈsiːz | |
| seem | theme | ˈsiːm | |
| sees | seethe | ˈsiːz | |
| seize | seethe | ˈsiːz | |
| sick | thick | ˈsɪk | |
| sigh | thigh | ˈsaɪ | |
| sin | thin | ˈsɪn | |
| sing | thing | ˈsɪŋ | |
| sink | think | ˈsɪŋk | |
| six | sixth | ˈsɪks | |
| size | scythe | ˈsaɪz | |
| soar | thaw | ˈsɔː | Non-rhotic acents with horse-hoarse merger. |
| soar | Thor | ˈsɔː(r) | With horse-hoarse merger. |
| soared | thawed | ˈsɔːd | Non-rhotic accents with horse-hoarse merger. |
| some | thumb | ˈsʌm | |
| song | thong | ˈsɒŋ, ˈsɔːŋ | |
| sore | thaw | ˈsɔː | Non-rhotic accents with horse-hoarse merger. |
| sore | Thor | ˈsɔː(r) | With horse-hoarse merger. |
| sored | thawed | ˈsɔːd | Non-rhotic accents with horse-hoarse merger. |
| sort | thought | ˈsɔːt | Non-rhotic accents. |
| sought | thought | ˈsɔːt | |
| suds | thuds | ˈsʌdz | |
| sum | thumb | ˈsʌm | |
| sump | thump | ˈsʌmp | |
| sunder | thunder | ˈsʌndə(r) | |
| sunk | thunk | ˈsʌŋk | |
| swart | thwart | ˈswɔː(r)t | |
| sword | thawed | ˈsɔːd | Non-rhotic accents with horse-hoarse merger. |
| tense | tenth | ˈtɛns | |
| tents | tenth | ˈtɛn(t)s | |