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I have observed a recent trend to pronounce "the" as "thuh" even if it is followed by a vowel (as in "thuh evening.") Is this regional (I live in Alabama) or national? I think it's the latter. And does anyone have an idea about why this has happened? Has the glottal stop become fashionable? Is it typical of an age group?

tchrist
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Raphael Crystal
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    My guess is "Twas ever thus", and that you're just experiencing Blue/red car syndrome – FumbleFingers Aug 03 '15 at 15:52
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    I think there were always some people who ignored the thee/thuh distinction in pronouncing "the." But I believe this has become more mainstream. I have been teaching musical theatre for twenty years (first in Indiana, now in Alabama). I think that ten years ago, when reading scripts, my students would usually observe that distinction. Now they usually don't. I might be listening differently, or it might be the move from Indiana to Alabama, or it might be a real shift in pronunciation styles, which I think is most likely. If so, I wonder who or what is the source of this change. – Raphael Crystal Aug 03 '15 at 16:02
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    Related. – Robusto Aug 03 '15 at 16:02
  • I think the "shift" in observed pronunciation might possibly be attributable to your shift in geography. – Robusto Aug 03 '15 at 16:04
  • This is highly dependent on locale, social/economic status, etc. Even if there is a shift there would be no practical way to ascertain it due to the poor "signal to noise ratio". – Hot Licks Aug 03 '15 at 17:00
  • The vowel will be reduced in unstressed position, especially under the fast speech rules operative here. Good luck hearing a difference between a reduced [ɨ] or [ɪ̈] and a complete [ə]. This is hard even for people trained to do it, and virtually impossible for those who are not. That means you will not be aware of what’s really happening and therefore are apt to mischaracterize it. – tchrist Aug 04 '15 at 13:03
  • As to glottal stop, I hear more kids these days, often not even on my lawn, that use it instead of a flap, as in 'button' (normally /but̬n/ but now /bu?n/. (but not for 'writer', that's still a flap as far as I hear. – Mitch Aug 04 '15 at 13:13
  • The distinction between /ðə/ and /ðɪ/ has generally been pretty robust in BrE, but I've always assumed that this wasn't so in American accents. This is partly to do with the fact that most of the time, the unstressed /ɪ/ becomes /ə/ in many American accents, such as in the first syllable of resign. – Peter Aug 06 '15 at 08:01
  • Well, "evening" can begin phonetically with a consonant, a glottal stop, and if it does, I say "thuh" before it. It's not an exception. – Greg Lee Aug 29 '15 at 04:51
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    possible duplicates: Variations in the pronunciation of “the”, Pronunciation of “the”: thee versus thuh – herisson Sep 28 '15 at 06:14

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It is a world wide, common in all English speaking languages, and it is not new. If I were to give you a reason for it, I would say that it originates from the spelling of the word. It is common for people once they know how to read to replace what they know with what they read. Many people with foreign names experience this daily, when friends and strangers try to pronounce their name, the way it is spelled instead of the way it is supposed to be pronounced.

The phenomenon has a name, although it escapes me at the moment.

Born2Smile
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