Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
| Subject: | Technical Term for a Change of Vowel Sound? |
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| Question: |
I'm having a hard time identifying the technical term for the change to the sounding of the ''e'' vowel in the English definite article ''the'' when the next word begins with a vowel. When the next word begins with a consonant, people in my area typically sound the definite article as ''thuh.'' When the next word begins with a vowel, they typically sound it as ''thee.'' Thuh book Thee essay Thuh camel Thee aardvark In linguistics, what is the technical term for that change? Thank you, Paul Schlicher Yardley, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Reply: |
The alternative ways of pronouncing "the" are universal in English, I believe, not just one local area. The only mildly-technical term I can think of for it is "vowel reduction", implying that the pronunciation as "thee" is basic in some sense, and the shorter and more central pronunciation before a consonant is derived from that. Geoffrey Sampson |
| Reply From: | Geoffrey Richard Sampson click here to access email |
| Date: | 16-Dec-2012 |
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