Th-stopping

Template:English phonology topics Template:IPA notice Th-stopping is the realization of the dental fricatives as stops—either dental or alveolar—which occurs in several dialects of English. In some accents, such as of Indian English and middle- or upper-class Irish English, they are realized as the dental stops and as such do not merge with the alveolar stops ; thus, for example, tin ( in Ireland and in India) is not a homophone of thin . In other accents, such as varieties of Caribbean English, Nigerian English, Liberian English, and older, rural, or working-class Irish English, such pairs are indeed merged. Variation between both dental and alveolar forms exists in much of the working-class English speech of North America and sometimes southern England. It is also common for babies and toddlers, who are still learning to talk and/or haven't fully grown their front teeth capable of producing the th sound. Th-stopping occurred in all continental Germanic languages, resulting in cognates such as German die for "the" and Bruder for "brother".

New York City English

For the working class of New York City and its surrounding region, the fricatives and are often pronounced as affricatives or stops, rather than as fricatives. Usually they remain dental, so that the oppositions and are not lost. Thus thanks may be pronounced , , or in decreasing order of occurrence; all are distinct from tanks . The variant has a weakish articulation. The opposition may be lost, exceptionally in the environment of a following (making three homophonous with tree), and in the case of the word with, (so that with a may rhyme with the non-rhotic pronunciation of bitter-bidder; with you may be , following the same yod-coalescence rule as hit you. These pronunciations are all stigmatized.

The opposition seems to be lost more readily, though not as readily as the "Brooklynese" stereotype might lead one to believe. As in many other places, initial is subject to assimilation or deletion in a range of environments in relatively informal and/or popular speech, e.g. who's there ; as in many other places, it is also subject to stopping there . This option extends to one or two words in which the is not initial, e.g. other, which can thus become a homonym of utter-udder. But it would not be usual for southern to be pronounced identically with sudden or breathe with breed.

African-American Vernacular English

In African-American Vernacular English, in the words with and nothing, may occur corresponding to standard , with the [t] itself being succeeded by the t-glottalization rule: thus for with and for nothing.Template:Rp Th-stopping is also reported for some other non-initial s, apparently particularly when preceded by a nasal and followed by a plosive, as keep your mouth closed.Template:Rp In initial position, occurs in AAVE just as in standard accents: thin is , without the stopping of West Indian accents. Stopping of initial , however, is frequent, making then pronounced as or sometimes homophonous with den.

Frequency in other accents

Th-stopping is also commonly heard, specifically from speakers of working-class origins, in the American English dialects of the Inland North (for example, in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo), the Upper Midwest (for example, in the especially Fennoscandian-descended locals of Minnesota's Iron Range and Michigan's Upper Peninsula), and the Mid-Atlantic region (for example, in Philadelphia and Baltimore). It is also heard in a minority of speakers of England's Estuary dialect (for example, in London), but only in the case of word-initial . Many speakers of Philippine English and some speakers of other variants in Asia also have th-stopping.

The dialect of Sheffield in England is sometimes referred to as "dee-dar" because of the th-stopping to change initial to . However, a 1997 study in Sheffield found this was then largely confined to older males.

In certain international radiotelecommunications such as the NATO phonetic alphabet, the digit code words three and thousand are pronounced and to avoid mispronouncing them as and .

Homophonous pairs

		IPA	Notes
ate	eighth		Some accents pronounce ate as
Bart	bath		Non-rhotic accents with trap–bath split.
bat	bath		Without trap–bath split.
bayed	bathe
bet	Beth
bladder	blather
blight	Blythe
blitter	blither		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
boat	both
body	bothy		Without lot–cloth split and with intervocalic alveolar flapping.
boot	booth
breed	breathe
Brett	breath
brought	broth		With lot–cloth split. Also in some accents.
cedar	seether
cent	synth		With pin–pen merger.
cite	scythe
clot	cloth		Without cot–caught merger.
coot	couth
D; dee	the		The before vowels and silent H.
D; dee	thee
Dan	than
dare	their
dare	there
dare	they're
Darude	the rude
day	they
debt	death
Dee	the		The before vowels and silent H.
Dee	thee
den	then
dense	thence
dents	thence
dhow	thou
die	thy
dine	thine
dirt	dearth		with fern–fir–fur merger.
dis	this
doe	though
does	those
dough	though
dow	thou
dow	though
drought	drouth
dye	thy
eater	either		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
eater	ether		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
eight	eighth
Ent	nth
fate	faith
fetter	feather		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
fit	fifth		Some accents pronounce fifth as .
fodder	father		With father–bother merger.
fort	forth
fort	fourth
fraught	froth		With lot–cloth split.
frot	froth		Without lot–cloth split.
got	goth, Goth
groat	growth
hart	hearth
hat	hath
header	heather
heart	hearth
heat	heath
hitter	hither		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
hurt	earth		With H-dropping and fern–fir–fur merger.
Ida	either		Non-rhotic accents.
knead	neath
kneader	neither
kneed	neath
ladder	lather
lade	lathe
laid	lathe
latter	lather		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
letter	leather
lied	lithe
load	loathe
lode	loathe
loud	Louth
martyr	Martha		Non-rhotic accents.
mat	math
matte	math
mead	Meath
meat	Meath
meet	Meath
met	meth
mete	Meath
mitt	myth
motte	moth
mutter	mother		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
naught	north		Non-rhotic accents.
neater	neither		With intervocalic alveolar flapping. Some accents pronounce neither as .
neat	neath
need	neath
oat	oath
oats	oaths
odes	oaths
pads	paths		Without trap–bath split.
paid	pathe
part	path		Non-rhotic accents with trap–bath split.
parts	paths
pat	path		Without trap–bath split.
pats	paths
pit	pith
pity	pithy
rat	wrath		Without trap–bath split.
rate	wraith
read	wreathe
reads	wreathes
reads	wreaths
reed	wreathe
reeds	wreathes
reeds	wreaths
ride	writhe
rot	Roth		Without lot–cloth split.
root	ruth, Ruth		With yod-dropping. Some accents pronounce root as .
route	ruth, Ruth		With yod-dropping. Some accents pronounce route as .
scent	synth		With pen–pin merger.
seed	seethe
seeder	seether
sent	synth		With pen–pin merger.
set	saith
set	Seth
she'd	sheathe
sheet	sheath
side	scythe
sight	scythe
sit	Sith
site	scythe
smit	smith
smite	Smyth
spilt	spilth
soot	sooth		Some accents pronounce soot as .
sudden	southern		Non-rhotic accents.
sued	soothe		With yod-dropping.
suede	swathe		Some accents pronounce swathe as .
suit	sooth		With yod-dropping.
swat	swath		Without lot–cloth split.
swayed	swathe		Some accents pronounce swathe as .
tank	thank
tater	theta		Non-rhotic accents. Some accents pronounce theta as .
taught	thought
team	theme
teary	theory
teat	teeth
teed	teethe
teeter	theta		Non-rhotic accents. Some accents pronounce theta as .
tent	tenth
Thai	thigh
tic	thick
tick	thick
ticket	thicket
tide	tithe
tie	thigh
tied	tithe
tin	thin
tinker	thinker
toot	tooth
tor	thaw		Non-rhotic accents.
tor	Thor
tore	thaw		Non-rhotic accents with horse–hoarse merger.
tore	Thor		With horse–hoarse merger.
torn	thorn		With horse–hoarse merger.
tort	thought		Non-rhotic accents.
tote	Thoth
trash	thrash
trawl	thrall
tread	thread
tree	three
trill	thrill
true	threw
true	through		With yod-dropping.
trust	thrust
tum	thumb
tump	thump
turd	third		With fern–fir–fur merger.
udder	other
utter	other		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
Utes	youths
welt	wealth
wetter	weather		With intervocalic alveolar flapping.
wit	width
wit	with
wordy	worthy
wort	worth		Some accents pronounce wort as .
wrought	Roth		With lot–cloth split.
wrought	wroth		With lot–cloth split.

See also

• List of Th-stopping homophones
• Th-fronting
• Definite article reduction