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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Pronunciation of th

In the pronunciation of 'th' diagraph in the word 'think', do you hear the sounds for both t and h as in a consonant blend please?
  

Top answer

"Th" is not an actual combination of "t" and "h," such that you can still hear the individual letters in it. It is more of a single sound, that is designated as "th," for lack of anything better, and also to avoid adding another letter to the 26 letters already in the English alphabet. As for the practical pronunciation of it, you might try saying "tink": in this word, which is easy to pronounce, the tip of the tongue contacts the back of the upper teeth for a very brief time only, and then immediately breaks contact with the teeth.

— Anonymous

  • "Th" is not an actual combination of "t" and "h," such that you can still hear the individual letters in it.
  • It is more of a single sound, that is designated as "th," for lack of anything better, and also to avoid adding another letter to the 26 letters already in the English alphabet.
  • As for the practical pronunciation of it, you might try saying "tink": in this word, which is easy to pronounce, the tip of the tongue contacts the back of the upper teeth for a very brief time only, and then immediately breaks contact with the teeth.
  • In "think," the position of the tongue is initially the same as for "tink," but instead of immediately breaking contact with the teeth, it maintains contact for a while, thereby producing that "th" sound.
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3 Answers
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"Th" is not an actual combination of "t" and "h," such that you can still hear the individual letters in it. It is more of a single sound, that is designated as "th," for lack of anything better, and also to avoid adding another letter to the 26 letters already in the English alphabet.

As for the practical pronunciation of it, you might try saying "tink": in this word, which is easy to
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Let me add to Anon's answer that at one time there were two letters in English representing the "TH" sound, ð and þ. They have both disappeared from English, replaced by "TH", but ð is still in use in Icelandic.
Edit: I just looked it up, and discovered that þ is also still in use in Icelandic.
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AnonymousIn the pronunciation of 'th' diagraph in the word 'think', do you hear the sounds for both t and h as in a consonant blend please?
Not at all. It is one sound represented by two letters (two 'graphs'). It is not a consonant blend.

In fact, it's more complicated than that. The same digraph sometimes represents the sound of th in 'thi
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