The TH sound
Continuing on the topic of digraphs, "th" is a example of a digraph that is used very frequently in English. There are two kinds of th sounds in English. What follows will be the IPA symbol used to represent the sound and some example words.
This symbol (called theta) represents the soft "th" sound occurring in words like thin, thigh, with, and breath.
This symbol (called eth) represents the hard "th" sound in words such as then, thy, there, and breathe.
There is no set rule for determining if the soft or hard "th" is used, it must be memorized.
The main difference between these two sounds is that the former is voiceless and the latter is voiced, just like [s] is voiceless and [z] is voiced.
The "th" sound is not at all common in many languages, despite being used very frequently in English. For speakers of languages that do not have the "th" sound, it is often perceived as an [s] or [z].
WH-words
Another common digraph in English is WH. You know many of them as interrogative pronouns, sometimes called the "5W" words (who, what, where, when, why).
WH and HW
Most people see WH-words as taking just a [w] sound and leaving the [h] to be silent. However, did you know that for some dialects of English, the WH digarph is pronounced as if it were spelled "HW"?
This phenomenon is known as the whine/wine merger, as the h in WH words used to always be pronounced as [hw]. It is named as such because those words are no longer homophones after WH was realized with just a [w] sound and not [hw].
Note: for the "5W" words (who, what, where, when, why): this does not apply to the word who since it takes an [h] sound all the time (with the W silent) and not a [w] sound like the other four words.
For those that are using the "HW" sound, the [h] is often hard to notice, you have to listen very carefully as there is an initial, brief burst of air. Speakers that ignore the H in WH words often cannot tell if the other person is pronouncing the H.
Most of the time it is not a true [h] sound (as in the word hill), so a special IPA symbol is used, an upside-down w [ʍ] to represent the [hw].
Friday, March 28, 2008
More digraphs: TH and WH
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905 comments:
LOL... nice said. I know that but never used it by thinking.
again ?! haha .. i seriously learn alots frem reading ur bloggie . thanks for the english . (:
its useful for learning alphabet (greek). thanks.
Wait..wait.. I am getting really confused of the sound of them.
I don't know that people use the right way while they talk. At least I don't use them
Th is very common letter in my language (albanian) wich is amazing language all letters and sounds u will find in this ancient language.
i alaways use 4W+1H to make an observation.
what, when, who, where + how
No, in my native language(Russian and Romanian) we don't have the "th" sound, but I got used to it, although, sometimes I still pronounce it as "z".
This portion is one of the most tough part for me to understood. When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
Thanks for the tips ;0
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How could people still now think about the spelling and the changes of our vocal changes??? I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
Really confusing matter.thanks for the post.
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I can relate to that. I taught English to one of my cousins some years ago and discussed about that WH HW thing. I just don't know if he applied it.
Hmm.. I didn't know this portion of the digraph. Thanks.
I'm impressed. There is so much more to the phonetic side of English than I thought.
The "th" sound is often interchanged with a "d" sound as well. You hear it often in AAVE and also, interestingly, in English spoken by native Spanish speakers (from Spain).
They often say the "d" sound instead of the "th", even though both the voiced and unvoiced forms of "th" exist in Ceceo Castilian.
ohh man all these pronunciations are reminding me of grammar school -_-
this just reminds me of how little i know about the english language :O
These mistakes are so common that we do but I think general English speaker should not be bothered with it as it belongs to phonetics.
They often say the "d" sound instead of the "th", even though both the voiced and unvoiced forms of "th" exist in Ceceo Castilian.When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
Thanks a lot for sharing
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thank you! appreciated
Th and Wh is one of the most confusing matter for the children.LOL.
They are so close that if I try to think my brain stop working. I never give a deep try for understanding this.
Really confusing matter.
Ahah really LOL :-)
ah ah thanks man for this post
Perhaps all of us know that but can't describe that. You are blessed that you can describe that in words because it is pretty difficult job.
Many language use th and wh in different reason. that is why that two alphabet are my most problematic sector to me.
Wow.. didn't realize soundings can be so complicated.
Yes, different ways of hearing things can come about. Very interesting.
In my openion this is confusing matter. I don't know that what matter people are used.
intresting, would not have thought about it that way myself.
I taught English to one of my cousins some years ago and discussed about that WH HW thing.
Ya me too I try to think my brain stop working. I never give a deep try for understanding this.
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I hear English is the hardest language to learnf or such reasons!
It is confusing. I guess I have to have some practice first and keep the rules in my mind. After a while things will become normal. I shall never need to thing before speaking the words with TH and WH.
I also got used to it, although, sometimes I still pronounce it as "z".
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
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This portion is one of the most tough part for me to understood.
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I do not know that people use the right way while they talk. At least I don't use them
This is one of the problem for which the people of third world has a fear about English.Thanks for the post.
This is a reason thats why I don't like English language.It is so tough.
How could people still now think about the spelling and the changes of our vocal changes??? I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
Perhaps all of us know that but can't describe that. You are blessed that you can describe that in words because it is pretty difficult job
very interesting post...lol..i enjoyed it...keep posting.
I'm learning to speak Thai at the moment and they an interesting sound.
b - voiced B
ph - voiced P
p - unvoiced P
the unvoiced P sound, like in "spit" is really hard to say initially. They also have "ng" initially which is equally difficult. :(
This just confused the heck out of me. lol
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Really confusing matter.
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark
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I don't know that people use the right way while they talk. At least I don't use them
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English doesn't have a single letter to represent the initial sound ("ch") of the word child, so it must use two letters. Recognizing a digraph is one of the many difficulties in learning a language. For example, take the "ch" sound as mentioned above. One CANNOT simply read it as "a 'c' sound followed by an 'h' sound" - it is a completely different sound altogether.
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How could people still now think about the spelling and the changes of our vocal changes??? I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
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its useful for learning alphabet (greek). thanks.
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When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
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people use the right way while they talk. At least I don't use them
I dont use thm but I guess its personal choice
I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
a lot of digraphs are in latin languages
There is so much more to the phonetic side of English than I thought.
I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
One CANNOT simply read it as "a 'c' sound followed by an 'h' sound" - it is a completely different sound altogether... Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informatve article with us.
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Wait so it's Th then soft TH. HUH!!
We are not familiar with these signs. Is it too much necessary to know about the signs?
The "th" is just as it is felt to me from the very childhood to me. This post gives me some new information but didn't change anything much.
Don't you wanna give us some other facts of english language? the last post wast long time ago.
I don't think it is that much important for living a normal life.
I just don't know if he applied it.
thanks for sharing !
I had no idea these symbols represented sounds. Wing dings here I come!
good blog i think u can make it more good.
Very interesting. Whine should really be spelled hwine shouldn't it now? I am just learning Greek, and it is amazing to me how hard it is to "hear" sounds that we are not used to. Greek has some funny sounds that we don't have in English. The chi sound doesn't bother me because I had German when I was a kid, and its the same as the German ich sound, but the weird French u bothers me.
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never knew that there are so much differences. uhh, a lot to learn, but thanks! no one in school told us of this.
These mistakes are so common that we do but I think general English speaker should not be bothered with it as it belongs to phonetics.
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark
Where I can find similar information?
Thank you
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I was thinkin about the pronunciation of Smith, that some pronounce it Smit. hard one.
I gotta laugh here! It just reminds me of the problem I had in grade school trying to pronounce this sound and how it got me in a special learning class with candy for rewards when learning to make the "th" sound.
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I have never personally met any people that use the right way while they talk. At least I don't use them myself Italian Courses
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When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
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I was taught to spell by using phonics and I'm a spell much better than my children who were not and try learn by memorization.
making difference in pronunciation between the soft th and the hard th while speaking is one of the hardest obstacles on the process of learning english
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This portion is one of the most tough part for me to understood. When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
I guess you are trying to make us all expert in english. That is a good try.
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
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I don't know that people use the right way while they talk.
When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark.
Thank for advice
Once accents come in to it it can become very confusing especially mine - Scottish!
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One CANNOT simply read it as "a 'c' sound followed by an 'h' sound" - it is a completely different sound altogether... Trade Show Booth Rentals
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They often say the "d" sound instead of the "th", even though both the voiced and unvoiced forms of "th" exist in Ceceo Castilian.When ever I feel that I am understanding some after that I found that I am still in the dark. custom thesis | theses | buy thesis | thesis help | thesis writing
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I am getting really confused of the sound of them.
I found that I am still in the dark.
I found that I am still in the dark.
I never give a deep try for understanding this.
The "th" sound is not at all common in many languages, despite being used very frequently in English. For speakers of languages that do not have the "th" sound, it is often perceived as an [s] or [z].
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depending on region, th may sound ts..
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th and wh mispronouncing are due to mother tongue's accent. cant blame that do we.
Is there other example of this digraphs. say ph or ch?
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The TH words in English came from Gothic, Scandinavian, and more recently,Greek.Icelandic actually has two type of TH sounds, the ‘thorn’ þand the ‘edh’ ð.I don’t know how much Icelandic there is in English,but we also have two types of TH sounds – say "think" and "this" to hear the difference. Further down the road,Britain was importing many things from the continent. It seems that when words were imported from Germany and Holland, many ‘D’s were changed to ‘TH’s – e.g. ‘dank’ to ‘thank’ – definitely an improvement, right?
WH is within the top 10 consonant pairs.WH was both written and pronounced as HW – say ‘hwat’ – literally.Almost all of the words that are now written as "WH…" were originally written "HW…".This changed when the Normans who conquered England in 1066 AD and redefined the spelling of many words including these HW ones. Finally, a few WH words were initially "W…" words which were aspirated by the addition of an H – such as "whip" from "wippe".
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