th th th

There is a longevous and very funny tv show on russian tv called - Gorodok it gets aired every weekend for many years. Stoyanov and Olei'nikov rule. There was a subject where the police caught the bribe taker with the bunch of 100 american bucks and when the latter was asked what it is on the office table he replied that it's for studying english blah blah blah and then he continues to work on his pronunciation 1 th th ( there he sputters a bit ) th th ( splutters again ) th ( splutters ) th thousand fousand... ( It looks like trying to pronounce thousand word makes him slutter naturally, as though against his will). That wasn't a central joke in this scene but making fun on every little aspect in every scene is GORODOK's forte. Now we all know that in a real world many can't pronounce the TH sound and it makes for instance thanks sound senks, I know I can but an english man told me he was very pissed off when happend to have been listened to it in France. So native english speakers you see many think that you ( native english speakers/bullshitters ) sound like your front teeth have been beat out. What do you think? The the the? the the? the the. TH! S...

It is true......at the age of about three, just as we become competent in the early stages of learning our Language, all native English speakers have an essential minor but painless operation on the soft palate to enable us to pronounce the TH sound.....actually, two sounds. This does not occur in any other Language learning process, so count yourselves lucky, all you non native English speakers out there.

<<It is true......at the age of about three, just as we become competent in the early stages of learning our Language, all native English speakers have an essential minor but painless operation on the soft palate to enable us to pronounce the TH sound.....actually, two sounds. >>

LOL, Damian. Mystery solved.

Truth is, the "th" sound is by no means universally used in English. By way of example, Irish English speakers tend not to use it.

The sound exists in Spanish.

And "th" in English has two different pronounciations - notice the difference between the "th" in the word "the" and the "th" in the word "think."

"Truth is, the "th" sound is by no means universally used in English. By way of example, Irish English speakers tend not to use it. "

What cracks me up is when an Irish person counts.

It sounds as though he is saying "One, two, TREE, four, five...."

Or they say "What is one TURD of twenty?"

They just cannot pronounce the "th" sound even though (Irish - "even toe") they speak English.

Speaking of TH in English, do the folks speaking Estuary English really change all TH sounds to F, so "that" sounds like "fat", "the" like "fe", "three" like "free" etc. ??

If so, perhaps Estuary is the version of English that's ideal for certain non-native speakers to learn.

<<Speaking of TH in English, do the folks speaking Estuary English really change all TH sounds to F, so "that" sounds like "fat", "the" like "fe", "three" like "free" etc. ??>>

As far as I know, it only affects the voiceless ''th'' sound. So ''three'' is homophonous with ''free'' for them, but ''that'', and ''the'' still have a voiced ''th'' for them.

I don't have any /D/ or /T/ sound in my accent. They merge with the stops /d/ and /t/ for me. I'm from Jamaica.

then - /dEn/

thin - /tIn/

thing - /tIN/

This is very common in Jamaica. "Three" is indeed "tree" too. Them - "dem". There - "dere".

The two "th"s seem to be differentiated, with the voiceless "th" rendered as "t" and the other as "d". In my observation though - I've never studied it.

<<The two "th"s seem to be differentiated, with the voiceless "th" rendered as "t" and the other as "d". In my observation though - I've never studied it.>>

You're right there. The voiceless ''th'' is /t/ and the voiced ''th'' is /d/.

<<As far as I know, it only affects the voiceless ''th'' sound. So ''three'' is homophonous with ''free'' for them, but ''that'', and ''the'' still have a voiced ''th'' for them.>>

It's probably restricted in scope somehow, but "wiv" I thought is the common pronunciation of "with" ... ?

I once tried to tell someone that they could have "free refills", and they thought I was trying to say "three refills?". No, I was saying "free refills", I'm quite capable of saying /θ, ð/ if I want... (I sometimes don't want, or inadvertedly say /f, v/ instead. But only very rarely.)

I think if any non-English speaker is having difficulty getting the /θ, ð/ pronunciations right, probably no-one would blink if they replaced them with /f, v/. Much better than replacing them with /s, z/... It's what native children do before they have the operation Damian was talking of.

<<I don't have any /D/ or /T/ sound in my accent. They merge with the stops /d/ and /t/ for me. I'm from Jamaica.

then - /dEn/

thin - /tIn/

thing - /tIN/>>

If you want to sound educated, then you better start pronouncing those dental fricatives.

The Jamaicans sound fine just the way they are. Many highly educated Jamaican people speak with exactly that accent.