You Say "Thuh", I Say "Thee"...

[stoutfellow]

... but why?

This is an interesting article on the two pronunciations of the word "the" (reduced "thuh" versus unreduced "thee"), and the role each plays in communication.

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Very interesting article! I had to try out my own speech patterns, afterwards, of course (g). I notice that if I am going to have problems coming up with the noun itself, I would emphasize by pronouncing the as "thiy," but actually followed by "uhhhhh." Definitely a clue to the hearer that he might as well sit down; this could take a while (g).

Then I read the article cited on top of the link about Mel Gibson's planned movie in Mayan. It raised some very interesting questions. Not to mention if he really plans it with no religion...well, I know we don't know nearly enough about the Mayan culture, but I'm pretty sure that religion played a pretty big part in daily life, planting, chopping off heads, etc.