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Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 04:11 PM Nov 2014

Pronunciation of articles in English

Everyone knows that the pronunciation of the indefinite article depends on whether the following word begins with a vowel or a consonant. The spelling reflects the pronunciation. Thus we say "a dog" and "an owl". (There are borderline cases: some say "a historical drama"; others say "an historical drama".)

Did you know that the pronunciation of the definite article also depends on whether the following word begins with a vowel or a consonant? The spelling is always "the", but "the" usually rhymes with "knee" in front of a vowel, and usually rhymes with "uh" in front of a consonant. (There are exceptions; can you find them?)

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Pronunciation of articles in English (Original Post) Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 OP
What the ____? CurtEastPoint Nov 2014 #1
Verily I say unto thee ... Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 #5
My speech prefers schwa before everything but a stressed vowel. Igel Nov 2014 #8
Interesting but cryptic, as always. Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 #9
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Scuba Nov 2014 #2
Heathcliff! Heathcliff! n/t Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 #3
I don't get the reference. Please help. Scuba Nov 2014 #4
Heathcliff is a character Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 #6
OK, but what's that got to do with "thu" and "thee"? Scuba Nov 2014 #7
The technical term for this is morphophonology. Odin2005 Nov 2014 #10
Interesting. Lionel Mandrake Nov 2014 #11

CurtEastPoint

(18,548 posts)
1. What the ____?
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 04:53 PM
Nov 2014

English is so rich yet so weird sometimes.
I just Googled this and really hadn't thought much about it but when the following SOUND is like a consonant, you say thuh, e.g., the university. Thuh house but thee hour.

Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
5. Verily I say unto thee ...
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 06:34 PM
Nov 2014

if thou art a native English speaker, thou hast followed this rule thy whole life without knowing it.

Igel

(35,191 posts)
8. My speech prefers schwa before everything but a stressed vowel.
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 08:23 PM
Nov 2014

"thuh hour"

"thee hourly newscast."

We're not talking about citation-form stress, but full stress after resolution of stress clash and stress reduction to show noun phrase boundaries. So "hourly" may officially have initial stress, but in "hourly newscast" the word "hourly" has scant secondary stress. The /i/ in "the" is reduced in any event.

It's a hiatus resolution strategy, to avoid schwa next to a (non-high front) stressless vowel (which tends to be phonetically reduced anyway).

As soon as I say, "no, not the 6 pm newscast, but the HOURly newscast," the schwa is back and anything else sounds weird.

However, as soon as I swap out "hourly" for "evening," "thuh evening news" with stress on "news" is fine. Don't want the two high front vowels in hiatus any more than I want two reduced non-front non-high vowels in hiatus.

Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
9. Interesting but cryptic, as always.
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 09:36 PM
Nov 2014

Let me see if I have this straight. Schwa is that upside down e character which represents the (non-high front vowel) vowel sound in "uh" or "um". The vowel in "thee" is /i/, which is a high front vowel. Hiatus is two adjacent vowels that don't form a diphthong. Hiatus bothers you most if the two vowel sounds are similar, i.e., both high front or neither high front. Did I get all that right?

I'm confused by your example: "no, not the 6 pm newscast, but the HOURly newscast." Do you say "thuh HOURly ..." or "thee HOURly ..."? In this example you have "the" before a stressed vowel. The title of your post suggests "thee", but you say that the schwa is back and anything else sounds weird.

I suppose there are geographical variations, and maybe individual variations in the vowel sounds of "the" in context. In the past there were masters of "elocution" who taught that unaccented vowels should avoid the tendency toward schwa. That was like trying to push back the tide, but it may have had some residual effect.

Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
6. Heathcliff is a character
Wed Nov 12, 2014, 06:52 PM
Nov 2014

in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.

According to Wikipedia:

At the very close of the novel, a servant boy tells Nelly that he has seen the ghosts of Heathcliff and Catherine walking the moors together, although Nelly and Lockwood both insist that they must be treated as if their souls were at peace. The novel closes with Lockwood wandering past their graves and wondering "how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathcliff

Odin2005

(53,521 posts)
10. The technical term for this is morphophonology.
Thu Nov 13, 2014, 04:01 AM
Nov 2014

Another example of this is in "-'ve", it is pronounced "uhv" before a vowel and "uh" before a consonant. Hence "would-a", should-a, and could-a.

Lionel Mandrake

(4,073 posts)
11. Interesting.
Thu Nov 13, 2014, 02:05 PM
Nov 2014

My dictionary says:

morphophonology
noun
the branch of linguistics that deals with the phonological representation of morphemes.
which seems to cover my topic and a lot more.

I often say "would-uhv", "should-uhv", or "could-uhv" before consonants as well as vowels, but when I am careless the "v" sound is not very loud, i.e., what I say before a consonant is close to "would-uh", "should-uh", or "could-uh".

A common mistake in writing is to replace "have" with "of", e.g., "should of gone". This mistake reflects the pronunciation of "have" in context.
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