"th" as in "the" or "thread"
 

Is English the only language to pronounce "th" as it is pronounced in "the" and "thread"?

Je ne sais pas, je ne parle pas anglais

Plbbbt.......
Yeah English the only one ever....plbbbt.
To answer your question......No. Greek and Ancient Greek uses it all the time. There's a strong arguement for the Greeks using it first (as a common). Which is where "theo" came from which means god. In Greek the d sound is harder however. Same roots.

In summary:

Not only are we using it- we are pronouncing it wrong.

your question confuses me a bit, since the "th" is pronounced slightly differently in "thread" and "the". In Spanish, the consonant "d" is often pronounced similarly to the "th" in "the"

Are you asking whether any other language uses these sounds?

Or whether any other language spells them the same way?

:eyebrow:
Well, I speak English and I DON'T pronounce the "th" in those words the same.

I think that's what Spexx is saying ferret: it's spelled the same but it's pronounced differently....or am I mistaken Spexx?

The original comment IS rather ambiguous, isn't it...

Do you pronounce Ferry and Fairy the same way?

yes. don't you? why is that relevant? (confused)

I do. It's not relevant, but Spex's question seems to be answered, so I asked my own.

I met a woman a couple weeks ago who corrected my pronunciation of ferry. I pronounced it just like fairy, but she said I should pronounce it more like feh-rry.

whenever someone corrects your pronunciation, tell them that they have bad breath.

say, " Oh, thanks. and...uhm.....you have bad breath. do you have any mints? or gum or something?"

try it. you'll feel very empowered afterwards. you should say something fucked up to at least one person a day.

So, according to Wikipedia:

almost all European and Asian languages lack the voiced dental fricative ("the"), but it does have a list of languages, like English, the Spanish one I mentioned, Greek, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_dental_fricative

And the other sound, the voiceless dental fricative, is also missing in many major languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_fricative

that answer your question?

You make it sound sooo dirty. :blush:

Yet, so fascinating.

I'm wearing a dipthong.

No. We Brits have a plethora of vowel sounds, but we only let the Pilgrims take one with them when they left.

lol!!!
yea...thanks for the update...got any mints...no...not for me.....uh....do you have any mints for you?
That's a keeper!

I'd pay that one monster. lol Funniest thing i've seen at this time of day ever.

OK, that's an exaggeration, but it was still amuzing.

Ferry = short 'e' two short staccato syllables. Fairy = a long 'air' sound, one long and one short syllable.

I hear those words differently, so I believe I say them differently, though it might take a linguistic specialist to determine the difference. I feel the same way about their/they're/there, and affect/effect. I "hear" them almost as if it's a visual thing. Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

d'ja ever tell someone that they have something in their teeth just for fun? or a bit of glitter on their face? just to watch them make weird faces and stuff?

I thank you. I actually made myself laugh with that one and caused myself to double post. I'm thinking the americans are not finding it so amusing.... :D

Maybe not. I hope they don't think we're being cruel. ;)

ch'yeah....cuz americans give a rat's red ass what you furriners think of us and our'n

:) ... of course you don't care Jimbo.

no chattingz!

ok. stop responding then. :)

I'm with DanaC on ferry/fairy, and affect/effect are differentiated out of my mouth. Affect comes nearer a schwa, and effect may go to long E if I'm trying to be extremely intelligible.

Ferry rhymes with furry. Fairy rhymes with hairy.

My original point. Most people for whom English is a second language pronounce "th", whether as in "the" or "thread" as something other than we do. Germans say "zee tread", French say "dee tread", Japanese say "zee sssread". It seems as though we may be the only ones to use the "dental fricative".

No, there are plenty--but you're right about the languages you do list.

No it doesn't. Seriously, you rich Americans need to club together and buy another vowel sound.

Ferry, Furry and Fairy are all distinct. As are Fiery, Fury and Fuckingincidentally.

I'm sure I've been here before ...maybe in a dream....? Where's SG, she's in charge of cellar dreams isn't she? I had this one before, I demand a refund.

Just curious--in what regional accents does ferry rhyme with furry?

Since we're on the subject, how do others pronounce 'wh' words, like what, when, where and whale?

My grandmother was from Scotland and would always say "It's not 'wale' it's ..." and then she would pronounce 'whale' so you could hear the 'h,' but it sounded to me more like the letters were reversed, 'hwale.' Or 'hwat' or 'hwen.' I don't remember about 'who.'

I think I get it now - the distinction between ferry and fairy is a slightly more open mouth on the first syllable, right?

edit: in some regional accents, "very" rhymes with "furry". Maybe even in mine... yikes

Like Mrs hWiggins (as said by Mr Tudball)

Philadelphia. But we also rhyme water with wooder, or in South Philadelphia, wooduh.

Berry and bury are pronounced identically.

How strange. To me, water and wooder are not remotely similar; but berry and bury are homonyms

People who say "wooder" also tend to say "warsh" or "worsh" instead of wash...

Also I've heard that's just a PA thing

Are you saying that berry sounds different than ferry?

sure, berry sounds different from ferry.

They have a different initial consonant! (sticks out tongue)

With most of the 'wh' words, the letters were reversed as Old English (Anglo-Saxon) evolved into Modern English: 'what' = hwa, 'where' = hwaer, 'who' = hwa.

You still can hear a slight hint of that 'hw' sound in some English regional pronunciations, but it's most pronounced over the border in Scotland.

Thanks Dana. That's one of those things that I've always wanted to know but was afraid to ask.

Some rural Missouri dialects have "warsh/worsh" thing but not "wooder."

I heard that the DC accent at one point said "Warshinton", but I've never heard it in person.

I've known exactly one person who said "Warshington," but she retired two years ago from my place of work.

You hear "warsh" around here a lot. Also, "feesh"

I just got back from the Cod (those Pilgrims---so freakin' literal!) and the most pronounced accent I heard was Portuguese which is lyrical and nice to the ear.

:)


Anyway, most of you know how i feel about pronunciation. If a guy says "twicet" instead of "twice," I know I'm goin' to the Monster Truck Rally.

Twicet! lol

Big pet peeve...around here, the first syllable in mnemonic is pronounced like pneumonia and pneumonia is pronounced like mnemonic. Yes, we have many occasions to say mnemonic because of our software setup. People with doctorate degrees who can't enunciate? Or, the fact that most FA people I know, even, say FASFA, when it's FAFSA.

[/irrelevant ranting]

My mom says FASFA....drives me insannnnneeee


so I know where you're coming from on that one.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid?

Maybe if they'd capitalized the other F too?

OK, back to the "th." "Th" in the and thread are the same. It is the fact that your lips, tongue, and teeth do very different things following the initial 'th' that you think you are saying them differently.

Maybe I have missed the point of the thread.

I gotta start drinking earlier in the day if I am going to respond to these things.

The is aspirated, i. e. you suck air when you say it. Thread is not, so it sounds different. The tongue stays in the same position in both, however.

Depends on accent I guess, but to me the tongue seems to touch the teeth more on "the" than on "thread".

I agree with Dana on this. My tongue is in a slightly different position, and I'm blowing out on both.

Hang on - I thought this was the RBS thread.

As far as I know, the difference between th in "this" and th in "thin" is that the first is voiced, and the second is unvoiced. Everything in your mouth is the same, but you engage your vocal cords.

I have spent a lot of time trying to get Japanese people to stick out their tongues to say "th". :flycatch: :eaty:

So much for the dental fricative. Now, about your labial plosive ...