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/ / a n d / /

The English spelling stands for two different sounds: the voiceless // and voiced //.Voiced means you feel that vibration in the throat, from the vocal cords vibrating. We will look atsome hints to help you know how to pronounce . There are no absolute rules that can tell you topronounce it as // or //, but there are some very helpful guidelines.

1. in function words = //

Function words are minor words (besides content words nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs);

function words include prepositions, conjunctions, particles, pronouns, pro-forms (there), articles,etc. The in function words is usually at the beginning of the word, and is usually pronounced//.

ARTICLES / DETERMINERS,

PRONOUNS / PRO-FORMS the,this, that, these, those, they, than, there, thou, thee, thy

PREP / CONJ. than, therefore, thereupon, though, although, then

NOTES:

The of the following function words is // because they are compounded from thing:anything, something, nothing, everything.

The in through is pronounced //.

2. before Old English endings = //

The before some suffixes and word endings is pronounced //. These are suffixes added toform new words from older ones, and these particular suffixes are from Old English:

bathbreath

teethsooth

bathebreatheteethesoothe

clothworthnorthsouthheath

clothing, clothierworthynorthern, northersouthernheather

This -ing is the noun suffix as in building, not the verb suffix for present progressive; the suffixes -y,-ish are adjective suffixes; -e often creates verbs from nouns. In some cases we can see the originalbase word which has //, but adding a suffix changes it to //, but sometimes the original base wordhas disappeared from English.

Some words from Old English with // + OE suffix or ending:

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-e bathe, breathe, lathe, loathe, seethe, soothe, teethe, tithe

-er another, blithering, bother, brother, father, farther, further, heather, hither*, leather,mother, nether*, norther, northerly, other, smother, southerly, thither*, whither*,wither

-ern northern, southern

-en brethren, heathen

-(i)er clothier

-(i)est furthest

-y worthy

-ing clothing, farthing (rare)

NOTES:

1. When adding other suffixes, such as verbal -ing, the pronunciation of the base word is retained inthe new word:

:breathe breathing, breathed

: sleuth to sleuth, sleuthing, sleuthed

2. Words with -orlike authorare usually from Latin, and have //.

3. Words with the suffix -then (to create verbs from adjectives) have //, such as strengthen //,lengthen //.

3. Other exceptions: /, , t/

Other exceptions and apparent exceptions exist to the patterns above.

[a] other words with //

fathom, rhythm, algorithm, smooth

These and a few other words have //; the in fathom, rhythm, algorithm picked up voicing fromthe ; the word smooth is a spelling irregularity (it was spelled with an -e ending in Old English,and was voiced according to the OE endings above, but the final -e was lost in the spelling).

[b] -ther = //

Some words have similar spellings as the Old English endings, but are not from Old English. Theyhappen to have similar spellings, but come from other languages such as Greek and German, so these

words are pronounced with //:ether, Luther, panther, zither

[c] = /t/

In these proper names (which come from other languages like Hebrew and Thai), the ispronounced as /t/, not as // or //. The in Thames came from an attempt to alter to spelling byadding to make it look like it came from Greek.

Esther, Mathilda, Thai, Thailand, Thames, Thomas

[d] = // in adjectives

Adding the adjective suffix -y often does not cause the to change to the voiced sound ; it oftenremains .

froth - frothy health - healthy pith - pithy

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NOTE: The prepositions with, without have two possible pronunciations, depending on dialect. InNew England, the northeastern U.S., and British English, // is used, while // is used in generalNorth American English.

4. Elsewhere = //Except for the cases described above, in any other content word ( NOUN, ADJ., ADV., VERB) you can assumethat is probably pronounced //; in fact, it is pronounced // in most English words.

worth, tooth, mouth, broth, through, hearth, thermos, therapist, thyroid, Thursday, thud,thatch, thesis, throne, earth, isotherm, thousand, Arthur, athletic, lethal, thank, three, birth,northwest...

5. Identifying in words

When you encounter words with the spelling, you can put them through the following test todetermine its pronunciation:

1. Function word = Is it a function word? If so, then usually voiced//.

2. Old English ending = Is it an Old English ending? If so, then voiced//.

3. Exception? = , , t

Is it an exception to the patterns (due to a different language of origin), like those noted above?

4. Elsewhere = If it doesnt fit the above categories, then you can assume its the voiceless // - the Elsewhere

Principle.

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6. Some exercises / examples

Try to predict which sound is used, and try saying the following words or phrases aloud:

some clothmy clothing

a clothierto loathe

great worthvery worthy

a latheunearthed thallium

my brothmy brothersboth of themquit bothering me!

those rats!three topicsthese topicsthis watchtower

thermal socksthereuponover therethen we go

there you goanother one

though he triedthoughtfullythrough a holea thorough ad

Thursday afternoonMr. Thomas

give a titheit soothed himsoothsayerso smooth

a good therapistthreatening remarksthermos bottletheta

a blithering idiotmy withered planta leather purseblack panthers

a Lutheran church

underneathnether regionthe furthest onea farthing

nothing else

brush your teethteething painsher mouth

motherly carebutterflies and mothsSouth Streetsouthern lights

thus he spokeit went thudthrone roomknow thyself

a thin watchsewing thimblesa clever thefta thatched roof

heathen actsnot so healthyon the heather

rhythmic musictwo fathomsawful algorithms