Do the words ‘three’ and ‘tree’ sound the same to you? Are the words ‘den’ and ‘then’ homonyms? They shouldn’t be. Indeed, the 'th' is one of the more difficult consonants to pronounce in English, for us anyway. It is no surprise that many Malaysians mispronounce common words like 'the' or 'thick', without realising their error. After reading this, I hope that you will gain a little understanding on how we produce consonants and eventually conquer that elusive 'th'.
Phonetics
is an aspect of the English Language curriculum that has been given little or
no importance in our schools. When English is taught as a second language,
other basic aspects such as vocabulary and grammar take centre stage. So most of us,
understandably but misguidedly, don’t say it right. As a Malaysian, I too fall
into this category, living life without knowing the distinction, never being
corrected and able to get by without the need to know the difference.
Since we were never thought the correct way to pronounce the ‘th’s, we chose the closest speech sounds in our native tongues that resemble them, /d/ and /t/. But before we start belittling ourselves, languages that use ‘th’ sounds are quite rare in this world. The French, who also do not use ‘th’ in their native tongue, use replacements such as /z/ or /s/. Then becomes Zen and Thing becomes Sing.
Since we were never thought the correct way to pronounce the ‘th’s, we chose the closest speech sounds in our native tongues that resemble them, /d/ and /t/. But before we start belittling ourselves, languages that use ‘th’ sounds are quite rare in this world. The French, who also do not use ‘th’ in their native tongue, use replacements such as /z/ or /s/. Then becomes Zen and Thing becomes Sing.
‘Th’ belongs to a class of speech sounds called fricatives. Fricatives are all consonants and are characterised by a noisy sound generated by turbulent airflow at some point of constriction along the vocal tract.
In English, there are 8 fricatives altogether; /s/ (as in sing), /sh/ (as in shout), /f/ (as in fun), /th/ (as in thunder), /zh/ (as in measure), /z/ (as in pizza), /v/ (as in vent) and /dh/ (as in then) (DARPA phonetic symbols). ‘Th’ actually consists of two different speech sounds; /th/ and /dh/.
These fricatives are then divided into voiced and unvoiced categories. /Th/ being unvoiced and /dh/ voiced.
For fricatives, voicing means the production of sound when the vocal chords allow air through and vibrate – ‘active’. We produce it when we say any vowel (your mouth is open, tongue in some sort of position and the vocal chords are ‘active’), or when we hum (your mouth is closed but vocal chords are ‘active’ and air escapes through the nose).
The next part may require the use of a mirror to understand. Before jumping onto the ‘th’ challenge, I would like to explain fricatives using two which we are pretty familiar with, /f/ and /v/. I use these two as examples because they are analogous to /th/ and /dh/.
Now to fully understand fricatives, we need to isolate them from the vowel. As an example, we examine the /f/ in a word ‘fee’. Try saying ‘fee’ as slowly as you can. The first sound you make is the /f/; you place our upper front teeth above our lower lip and blow air through them.
As a result, you would feel a small gap form; and the emitted noisy and high pitched sound is your /f/. This fricative lasts as long as you can hold your teeth and lip in this arrangement while blowing air. Subsequently articulate the vowel ‘e’ to form the rest of the word. When this happens you lower your jaw, appropriately position your tongue and voice your vowel.
To understand /f/’s voiced counterpart, /v/, I use the vocalization of ‘V’ or ‘vee’. You begin almost the same way as /f/ where you also place upper front teeth over our lower lip however; instead of just blowing air you also apply some voicing. A gap also forms between the teeth and the lower lip but this time, because of the voicing, your lower lip would also vibrate a little depending on how much voicing you apply. At the onset of the vowel, you just continue your voicing to produce the ‘e’ vowel sound. If you had not known before, this is how the /v/ and /f/ are produced.
Next I would like to point out that the vocal tract configurations used in /f/ and /v/ are almost the same. They both use constrictions that occur when the upper front teeth make contact with our lower lip. This means that the pairs of /dh/ and /th/, /zh/ and /sh/; and /s/ and /z/ all use the same vocal tract configuration, more or less.
The /th/ is very much like the /f/ but with a totally different vocal tract configuration. For beginners, the following configuration is advised: protrude your tip of the tongue or the front of the tongue out through the upper and lower teeth, making sure that the upper front teeth rest on top of the tongue. Check this with a mirror. Then like with the /f/ you blow air, a small gap could be felt between the tongue and the upper front teeth. The sound produced is similar to the /f/ but not quite the same. Attach a vowel after it to make it a word e.g. ‘thin’.
Just like /v/ is the voiced equivalent of the /f/, the /dh/ is the /th/’s voiced complement. Using the same vocal tract configuration as in the /th/, you not only blow air but apply voicing as well. You should notice that our tongue and front teeth are now vibrating while allowing air out of the mouth. Place an ‘en’ behind it and now the word ‘then’ comes out perfectly. /Dh/ can sometimes be interpreted as a cross between a /d/ and a /z/. This accounts for the French’s tendency to pronounce ‘the’ as ‘zee’.
It should be noted that most native English speakers do not use this vocal tract configuration, their tongues are usually located behind the upper front teeth, just like it would be if you were about to say a /t/ or /d/. Hence, as we become more proficient with our ‘th’s, we can gradually shift the position of the tongue, just as long as we know what sounds to target.
Finally, I would briefly explain the difference between fricatives and stops to prevent us from substituting a /th/ for a /t/ or a /dh/ for a /d/ again. Stops are another consonant speech sound category that consists of 6 different sounds in English: /b/ (as in boat), /d/ (as in day), /g/ (as in go), /p/ (as in plain), /t/ (as in take), and /k/ (as in kite). Without further description, /d/ is voiced while /t/ is unvoiced.
Stops are generally defined by a sequence events centred on a burst of energy/air through a point of constriction somewhere in the mouth. In /t/s and /d/s that point is the contact between the tongue and the rear of the upper front teeth. Investigate for yourself the nature of these sounds. The sounds are short-lived and they involve some kind of forced puff of air (a lot of air if a hard /t/ or /d/ is uttered). Compare this to a /f/ or /th/ which requires a continuous stream of air. So if your ‘th’s sounds burst-like, you are still probably saying a /t/ or a /d/.
Hopefully, with all this information, you can understand how different the consonants are and through practice finally pronounce the two ’th’s correctly. But do not consider victory just yet, a major phonetic change needs practice. Try one word at a time. For example, from now on consciously start pronouncing ‘the’ the correct way and over time, start pronouncing more ‘th’ words the right way.
If you are unsure how to pronounce certain words, always refer to the dictionary which has the pronunciation reference. Foreign radio or television programmes offer good examples, but beware; they do sometimes make mistakes like us. This following website gives an audio assisted tutorial.
As for me, my newly acquired insights on these phonetic gaffes came as a by-product of my thesis research. My topic necessitates the complete understanding of speech, and I thought I would share a little as I see no point for my hard work just to be confined to some filing shelf somewhere. So, have you conquered the ‘th’?
In English, there are 8 fricatives altogether; /s/ (as in sing), /sh/ (as in shout), /f/ (as in fun), /th/ (as in thunder), /zh/ (as in measure), /z/ (as in pizza), /v/ (as in vent) and /dh/ (as in then) (DARPA phonetic symbols). ‘Th’ actually consists of two different speech sounds; /th/ and /dh/.
These fricatives are then divided into voiced and unvoiced categories. /Th/ being unvoiced and /dh/ voiced.
| Voiced | Unvoiced |
|---|---|
| v | f |
| dh | th |
| z | s |
| zh | sh |
For fricatives, voicing means the production of sound when the vocal chords allow air through and vibrate – ‘active’. We produce it when we say any vowel (your mouth is open, tongue in some sort of position and the vocal chords are ‘active’), or when we hum (your mouth is closed but vocal chords are ‘active’ and air escapes through the nose).
The next part may require the use of a mirror to understand. Before jumping onto the ‘th’ challenge, I would like to explain fricatives using two which we are pretty familiar with, /f/ and /v/. I use these two as examples because they are analogous to /th/ and /dh/.
Now to fully understand fricatives, we need to isolate them from the vowel. As an example, we examine the /f/ in a word ‘fee’. Try saying ‘fee’ as slowly as you can. The first sound you make is the /f/; you place our upper front teeth above our lower lip and blow air through them.
As a result, you would feel a small gap form; and the emitted noisy and high pitched sound is your /f/. This fricative lasts as long as you can hold your teeth and lip in this arrangement while blowing air. Subsequently articulate the vowel ‘e’ to form the rest of the word. When this happens you lower your jaw, appropriately position your tongue and voice your vowel.
To understand /f/’s voiced counterpart, /v/, I use the vocalization of ‘V’ or ‘vee’. You begin almost the same way as /f/ where you also place upper front teeth over our lower lip however; instead of just blowing air you also apply some voicing. A gap also forms between the teeth and the lower lip but this time, because of the voicing, your lower lip would also vibrate a little depending on how much voicing you apply. At the onset of the vowel, you just continue your voicing to produce the ‘e’ vowel sound. If you had not known before, this is how the /v/ and /f/ are produced.
Next I would like to point out that the vocal tract configurations used in /f/ and /v/ are almost the same. They both use constrictions that occur when the upper front teeth make contact with our lower lip. This means that the pairs of /dh/ and /th/, /zh/ and /sh/; and /s/ and /z/ all use the same vocal tract configuration, more or less.
The /th/ is very much like the /f/ but with a totally different vocal tract configuration. For beginners, the following configuration is advised: protrude your tip of the tongue or the front of the tongue out through the upper and lower teeth, making sure that the upper front teeth rest on top of the tongue. Check this with a mirror. Then like with the /f/ you blow air, a small gap could be felt between the tongue and the upper front teeth. The sound produced is similar to the /f/ but not quite the same. Attach a vowel after it to make it a word e.g. ‘thin’.
Just like /v/ is the voiced equivalent of the /f/, the /dh/ is the /th/’s voiced complement. Using the same vocal tract configuration as in the /th/, you not only blow air but apply voicing as well. You should notice that our tongue and front teeth are now vibrating while allowing air out of the mouth. Place an ‘en’ behind it and now the word ‘then’ comes out perfectly. /Dh/ can sometimes be interpreted as a cross between a /d/ and a /z/. This accounts for the French’s tendency to pronounce ‘the’ as ‘zee’.
It should be noted that most native English speakers do not use this vocal tract configuration, their tongues are usually located behind the upper front teeth, just like it would be if you were about to say a /t/ or /d/. Hence, as we become more proficient with our ‘th’s, we can gradually shift the position of the tongue, just as long as we know what sounds to target.
Finally, I would briefly explain the difference between fricatives and stops to prevent us from substituting a /th/ for a /t/ or a /dh/ for a /d/ again. Stops are another consonant speech sound category that consists of 6 different sounds in English: /b/ (as in boat), /d/ (as in day), /g/ (as in go), /p/ (as in plain), /t/ (as in take), and /k/ (as in kite). Without further description, /d/ is voiced while /t/ is unvoiced.
Stops are generally defined by a sequence events centred on a burst of energy/air through a point of constriction somewhere in the mouth. In /t/s and /d/s that point is the contact between the tongue and the rear of the upper front teeth. Investigate for yourself the nature of these sounds. The sounds are short-lived and they involve some kind of forced puff of air (a lot of air if a hard /t/ or /d/ is uttered). Compare this to a /f/ or /th/ which requires a continuous stream of air. So if your ‘th’s sounds burst-like, you are still probably saying a /t/ or a /d/.
Hopefully, with all this information, you can understand how different the consonants are and through practice finally pronounce the two ’th’s correctly. But do not consider victory just yet, a major phonetic change needs practice. Try one word at a time. For example, from now on consciously start pronouncing ‘the’ the correct way and over time, start pronouncing more ‘th’ words the right way.
If you are unsure how to pronounce certain words, always refer to the dictionary which has the pronunciation reference. Foreign radio or television programmes offer good examples, but beware; they do sometimes make mistakes like us. This following website gives an audio assisted tutorial.
As for me, my newly acquired insights on these phonetic gaffes came as a by-product of my thesis research. My topic necessitates the complete understanding of speech, and I thought I would share a little as I see no point for my hard work just to be confined to some filing shelf somewhere. So, have you conquered the ‘th’?
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