this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
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[–] Limfjorden@feddit.dk 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"The" does have two pronunciations depending on if the word after it starts with a vovel sound or not. It's "Thuh" for consonants and "Thee" for vowels.

[–] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

No it's not... it's purely emphasis/stress via vowel reduction in English?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_and_vowel_reduction_in_English

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's both things, and subjected to wide variation:

  • Stressed Unstressed
    Prevocalic /ði:/ /ði/, /ðɪ/, /ð/
    Preconsonantal /ði:/, /ðʌ/ /ðə/

Source for those pronunciations, Wiktionary.

To complicate it further some varieties merge /ʌ/ and /ə/, or /ɪ/ and /ə/. And I'm not even taking into account varieties using a different consonant, /t θ d f v/.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago

Ohh nice, that table helps. I felt like something was off about people sometimes using more /ði:/ than what I was taught!

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Please, i don't want to be self aware of my accent in my first language.

Also the two pronunciations of "the" noted above are different mouth shapes. "Uh" un butt versus "ee" in jeep.

[–] Limfjorden@feddit.dk 1 points 1 month ago

I'm just going off what I learned in school in Denmark. According to lvxferre@mander.xyz it seems there is a lot more variation than I thought.