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ELE 3103

Tutorial week 6

Siti norsharmila

Anis syuhada

Nor dahliaPismp sains jan 2010

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In modern English, // and // bear a phonemicrelationship to each other, as is demonstrated bythe presence of a small number ofminimalpairs: thigh:thy, ether:either, teeth:teethe.

Thus they are distinct phonemes (units of sound,differences in which can affect meaning), asopposed to allophones (different pronunciationsof a phoneme having no effect on meaning).

They are distinguished from the neighbouringlabiodental fricatives, sibilants and alveolar stops

by such minimal pairsas thought:fought/sought/taughtand then:Venn/

Zen/den.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pairhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pairhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pairhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pairhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_pair

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The vast majority of words in English with th

have //, and almost all newly created words do.However, the constant recurrence of the functionwords, particularly the, means that // isnevertheless more frequent in actual use.

The distribution pattern may be summed up inthe following rule of thumb which is valid in mostcases: in initial position we use // except incertain function words; in medial position we use// except for certain foreign loan words; and infinal position we use // except in certain verbs.A more detailed explanation follows.

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Initial position

Almost all words beginning with a dental fricative

have //.

A small number of common function words (the

Middle English anomalies mentioned below)

begin with //. The words in this group are:

5 demonstratives: the, this, that, these, those

2 personal pronouns each with multipleforms: thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself; they, them,

their, theirs, themselves, themself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themselfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themself

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7 adverbs and conjunctions: there, then, than,thus, though, thence, thither(though somespeakers pronounce thence and thitherwith

initial //) Various compound adverbs based on the

above words: therefore, thereupon, thereby,thereafter, thenceforth, etc.

A few words have initial th for /t/(e.g. Thomas): see below.

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Medial position

Most native words with medial th have //.

Between vowels: heathen,fathom; and the frequentcombination -ther-: bother, brother, dither, either,father, Heather, lather, mother, other, rather, slither,

southern, together, weather, whether,wither, smithereens; Caruthers, Gaithersburg,Netherlands, Witherspoon, and similar compoundnames where the first component ends in '-ther' or '-thers'. ButRutherfordhas either // or //.

Preceded by /r/: Worthington,farthing,farther,further, northern.

Followed by /r/: brethren.

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Final position

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns and adjectives ending in a dentalfricative usually have //:bath, breath, cloth,

froth, health, hearth, loath, sheath, sooth,tooth/teeth, width, wreath.

Exceptions are usually marked in the spelling

with -the: tithe, lathe, lithe with //. blythe, booth, scythe, smooth have either //

or //.

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Verbs

Verbs ending in a dental fricative usually have //, and arefrequently spelled -the: bathe, breathe, clothe, loathe,scathe, scythe, seethe, sheathe, soothe, teethe, tithe,

wreathe, writhe. Spelled without e: mouth (verb)nevertheless has //.

frothhas either // or // as a verb, but only // as a noun.

The verb endings -s, -ing, -ed do not change thepronunciation of a th in the final position in the

stem: bathe has //, therefore so do bathed, bathing,bathes;frothingwith either // or //.Likewise clothing used as a noun, scathing as an adjectiveetc.

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Others

withhas either // or // (see below), as do

its

compounds: within, without, outwith, withdra

w, withhold, withstand, wherewithal, etc.