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When I hear native speakers, especially Americans say the phrase I expect a "th" sound in "the" but instead, it sounds more like a "t" or "d" sometimes. Am I correct or am I just hearing it wrong?

Tilen
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  • I hear it like that too! – Mathew Hany Apr 02 '19 at 16:53
  • It would not be uncommon to hear "Wha' da' f**k!" In most cases this is an affectation of sorts, but some people use such words in normal speech. – Hot Licks Apr 02 '19 at 16:57
  • It may sound like a /d/, but it does not sound like a /t/. A word-initial /t/ is both aspirated and (in most dialects of AmE) slightly affricated, pronounced something like [tˢʰ], and the sound found in what the… (the last word doesn’t really matter) is definitely not a [tˢʰ]. Generally, the sequence /tð/ or /dð/ – and sometimes also just word-initial /ð/ by itself – becomes a dental affricate, which sounds a bit like a /d/, but is not a sound that otherwise exists in English. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 17:14
  • And often the pronoun is dropped as well, especially in exclamations of surprise or consternation: "The fuck?". – Robusto Apr 02 '19 at 17:28
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    @David That is neither here nor there – and it’s not very likely to be true either, I would wager. I don’t think I know a single person who doesn’t use such language (and that includes my mother), and it would be extremely unlikely that none of your acquaintances do. And there is no need for anyone not to either, as it happens: profanity is just as integral and important part of language as any other. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 18:17
  • @JanusBahsJacquet — Profanity? I’d check that one in a dictionary. – David Apr 02 '19 at 18:19
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    @David Be my guest. “Profanity: 1. blasphemous or obscene language” (ODO). – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 18:23
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    @JanusBahsJacquet — Chambers adheres to the original sense which is blasphemous. And if it is an integral part of the language, why the asterisks? – David Apr 02 '19 at 18:43
  • @David Even within Classical Latin itself, the word was not limited to the religious meaning. It been used in extended, non-religious meanings throughout its history as an English word. The asterisks are there because that’s the rule – swear words should be bowdlerised in titles. How does that make swear words unintegral? Swearing is a natural part of language which has been around probably for as long as human speech has existed, definitely for as long as we have written evidence of human language. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 18:55
  • @JanusBahsJacquet — There’s swearing and swearing. I stand by my original comment. If non-natives are allowed to believe such language is generally acceptable one is doing them a disservice. I personally have nothing against the word “fuck” as long as it is used to mean copulation. But that, apparently is taboo. – David Apr 02 '19 at 19:01
  • @David Swearing is taboo in pretty much every language (at least I know of no counter-examples). Non-native speakers are generally perfectly well aware that fuck is swearing, and also when it is therefore not appropriate to use it. If they are not aware that a word is considered a swear word, informing them is of course perfectly valid and advisable; but that’s a very far cry from suggesting they cut people out of their lives for doing something that virtually everyone does regularly. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 19:06
  • @JanusBahsJacquet — Non-native speakers should generally avoid swearing because it differs so much according to social class and is very difficult to do in a foreign language. It is very easy to either give offense or sound ridiculous. My remarks were ironic, but as a new user he should be aware of this before his "you say tomato, I say tomato" question is closed as off topic. – David Apr 02 '19 at 21:03

2 Answers2

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I'm pretty sure this is th-stopping, which is when people "pronounce the fricatives /θ, ð/ as alveolar stops [t, d]". It is especially associated with African American speech, but you will find it used elsewhere, in other dialects.

This can not only be heard in speech, it also shows up in written slang. Urban Dictionary, for example, defines the word "da" as:

  1. (slang) The

In all these expressions, the th is written as d:

Laurel
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    Even speakers who do not have th-stopping will usually pronounce this with a dental affricate, which can easily sound more like a /d/ than a /ð/, especially to a non-native speaker. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 23:46
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Native British English speaker here and I have only ever experienced the voiced dental fricative being used in this situation, unless the person is trying to sound a bit like a gangster or actually speaks like a gangster, in which scenario I have only heard "d" used, never "t".

Bob
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    You probably think you’re hearing a voiced dental fricative because that’s the phoneme; but by far the most common pronunciation is with a voiced dental affricate [d͡ð], rather than an actual fricative. Especially with the preceding /t/ (even if glottalised), affrication is almost unavoidable in regular speech. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 02 '19 at 18:09