Questions tagged [dental-fricative]

For questions about the "th" sounds (voiced th /ð/ and voiceless th /θ/).

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Allophones of dental fricatives (/θ/, /ð/) in English

I've noticed in my own speech (West Riding of Yorkshire, male, born in the '90s) two different ways I have of pronouncing phonemes /θ/ and /ð/: The tip of my tongue sits in the gap between my top and ...
mudri's user avatar
  • 191
11 votes
1 answer
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Is the rarity of dental sounds explained by babies not immediately having teeth?

Dental consonants, which involve the corona of the tongue contacting the teeth (typically the upper teeth) are known to be rare throughout the world’s languages. More specifically, phonemic ...
Graham H.'s user avatar
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Are there any examples in any language of words beginning with the sound [θð]?

While I have some difficulty pronouncing a hypothetical word ending with [θð], it seems perfectly possible to have such a sound at the beginning or in the middle of a word. Is the sound [θð] ever used ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
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The "th" sound as a plosive in British dialects

I've noticed that the th sound often becomes a plosive sound in Appalachian English. When and how did this phenomenon start?The only case I know where this happens in the british isles is Irish.Does ...
X30Marco's user avatar
  • 891
2 votes
3 answers
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Possible diachronic developments of th sounds

What are possible diachronic developments of th sounds? Of course, I am aware of th-stopping /ð/,/θ/ -> /d/ and of th-fronting/θ/ -> /f/. Are there other developments of ð/ and /θ/ attested in the ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
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Did Persian ever have a hard or soft "th" sound?

Farsi does not distinguish between ث (soft 'th' in Arabic, like "think") and ذ (hard 'th' in Arabic, like "that"). A native Farsi speaker pronounces ث like the 's' in "sing" and ذ like the 'z' in "zoo"...
techSultan's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
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The pronunciation of the voiced "th" in English

I speak General American English, and I pronounce voiced "th"'s in two different ways. The first, which is how I pronounce it in "the" and "father," feels somewhat like a stop; part of my tongue ...
MechVarg's user avatar
  • 101
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why is [ð] so rare?

Why is the vocalized dental fricative [ð] so rare across languages? Is it just a coincidence or is there a pattern behind this?
Probably's user avatar
  • 599
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is DH- stopping?

I can't seem to find any information on the internet that doesn't confuse me. But basically, is DH-stopping when in words such as 'there' - the 'th' is pronounced as a /d/? so 'dere' Thanks!
Hannah's user avatar
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9 votes
4 answers
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Any other example of "socially stigmatized phoneme" like the "th" sound in some Venetian dialect?

Older people living in some rural areas north of Venice use the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ for many words, like cena "supper" which is pronounced θena, exactly like in Spanish cena (Castilian, not ...
betelgeuse's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
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West Germanic Th-Stopping

This is just one example: In the word "father", there is the interdental voiced fricative. However, in Old English, the word is fæder with a voiced alveolar stop; it is also fader in Middle English. ...
Scott Clendenin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
363 views

When did the /θ/ sound die out in the continental Germanic languages?

I am looking for dates when the /θ/ phoneme (which once written ð and þ in English, and now by the th grapheme) inherited from Proto-Germanic died out in continental Germanic languages. In other ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
5k views

Voiced "th" in "thank you"?

I have a friend, a native English speaker from Boston, MA, USA (I believe he is mostly Irish American), who is absolutely adamant that the first sound in "thank you" is voiced, rather than voiceless. ...
linguisticturn's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
390 views

Detailed "quality" of /ð/

I've been learning and using English since I was 10. I have always been more or less aware of the /θ/ sound, but it wasn't until I got interested in IPA notation, when I realized English contrasts /ð/ ...
Arsen's user avatar
  • 577
3 votes
2 answers
635 views

Realization of word-initial ⟨th⟩ in the English language

This question may or may not be specific to the General American accent. In words such as thin, thick, and throw, the initial /θ/ doesn't sound the same as the /θ/ in words such as math and wrath. I ...
user2958652's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

ð and ð̞: is there a dental approximant?

I've been helping someone trying to create a conlang, and they are insistent that they want seven sonorant approximants. After a bit of desperation, I settled on wa, "vfwa" (which I can't give a good ...
Tristan Zahn's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
6k views

Why do some languages not have the "th" sound?

Why some languages don't have the "th" sound? (voiced and voiceless dental fricatives) They say languages such as French, Turkish etc don't have the "th" sound as in "thin" and "then". I sometimes ...
Kanthappan's user avatar