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From: Peter B Vanderheyden <pbvander@logos.math>
Subject: Re: The pronunciation of the definite article 'the' just before a vowel
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Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:44:32 GMT
To: hands <hands@po.iijnet.or.jp>
Reply-To: Peter B Vanderheyden <pbvander@logos.math>
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>  I have consulted a lot of dictionaries published in Japan, but I can't
> find out such an explanation. Is it true? Even if 'the' just before a
> vowel is pronounced the same as 'the' just before a consonant, is the
> pronunciation corect?

What an interesting observation!  I've never really thought about it,
but I thing that, yes, when I say "the car" I pronounce the article
similar to "th" + schwa (''thuh'') while "the animal" I pronounce more
like ''thee''. 

However, I don't believe there is any 'rule' about a 'correct' way of
pronouncing "the"... rather it's a matter of the 'lazy tongue' syndrome
-- it may be easier or more distinctive to pronounce it one way before
vowels and another before consonants.  E.g., when saying ''thuh
animal'', the ''uh'' can get lost in the following vowel, but ''thee''
keeps the two vowels distinct; for 'y' vowels (e.g., the first 'u' in
"uranium"), there is no such possible confusion, so ''thuh uranium'' or
''thee uranium'' are both equally effective. 

Other symptoms of a lazy tongue are seen in many regional accents, e.g.,
with "Canadian raising", we Canadians tend to pronounce "house" with a
more "uh"-type sound than Americans or British; the familiar Texan
"y'all" is a lazy tongue conjunction of "you all"; etc.

So maybe when you are being taught English, the so-called 'rules' for
pronouncing "the" are intended not so much to show you how you must
speak, but rather how you might speak to sound more like a native
English speaker?

Peter

